SECOND COPY, 
18*9. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap.. Copyright No. 

ShelfLBJL3-55 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



ShtalttE of flDan's IRature 



I.— DUALITY OF VOICE 



DUALITY 


OF 


VOICE 




AN OUTLINE OF ORIGINAL 


RESEARCH 




BY 

EMIL SUTRO 




AUTHOR OF ''THE BASIC LAW OF 
UTTERANCE." 


VOCAL 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
NEW YORK AND LONDON 

Zhe Iftntcfcerbocfcer press 

1899 






32470 



Copyright, i8gg 

BY 

EMIL SUTRO 

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 



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' There is nothing in our composition either purely 
material or purely spiritual." — Montaigne. 



in 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

I.— INTRODUCTION 

Comments of a Distant Reviewer . 
Fragments ....... 

Basic Law of Vocal Utterance 

The Voice of the (Esophagus and its Vocal Cords 



PAGE 

I 
15 

22 

37 
41 



II.— THE HUMAN VOICE . 

Introspection . 
Making Parts Rigid 
Extirpation . 
Movements of the Tongue 
Simple Sounds 
Posterior Surfaces . 
Inspiration — Expiration 
Diaphragms . 

III.— IMPRESSION— EXPRESSION . 

The Phonograph . 
Stuttering — Stammering 
Cathode of a Vocal Sound 



IV.— OUR MOTHER TONGUE 

National Traits of Character . 

The American Nation . 

Centripetal and Centrifugal . 

Rotation of Centripetal and Centrifugal Action 



44 

50 

56 

59 
61 
66 
68 

77 
80 

83 

88 

92 

103 

no 

112 
I20 
124 
130 



vi Contents 

CHAPTER PAGE 

V.— NATIONALITY AND RACE DISTINCTIONS . 137 
Idiomatic Expression ...... 141 

Origin of Anglo-Saxon Race and Idiom. 

Origin of German Race and Idiom. 
Relationship Supposed to Exist as between the 

German and English Nations .... 148 

Language and Motion . . . . . .151 

Difference in their Mode of Breathing as between 

Anglo-Saxons and Germans . . . .159 
Rise and Fall, or Rhythm . . . . .160 
Stress . . 174 

VI.— PHYSIOLOGY OF VOICE IN RELATION TO 

WORDS 178 

Significance of the Term "School" of Singing . 187 

Breathing 198 

Song, Singers, and Physiology .... 210 

INDEX 223 




DUALITY OF VOICE 



DUALITY OF VOICE 



AN OUTLINE OF ORIGINAL RESEARCH 



INTRODUCTION 



BY the time this book will appear, nearly six 
years will have elapsed since I discovered the 
voice of the oesophagus, and almost five since I 
published a preliminary account of this discovery 
in a book entitled The Basic Laiv of Vocal Utter- 
ance. 1 This discovery, though the most compre- 
hensive and far-reaching of any that has ever been 
made, not only in regard to the voice, but in regard 
to the better comprehension of our nature and our 
entire human existence, has remained as unknown 
to the world as if it had never been made. Yet 
some day, when its importance is recognized, it 
will take rank in the annals of the history of the 
human race as second to no other discovery that has 
influenced and shaped human thought in the proper 
recognition of the origin and the nature of man, 

1 Edgar S. Werner. New York, 1894. 



2 Duality of Voice 

spiritual as well as physical, his abilities and his 
limits, and his relative position, influence, and 
destiny in the economy of the universe. 

I have spent so many years of arduous labor on 
these investigations, and have become so thor- 
oughly convinced of their truth, that I have ven- 
tured to make these assertions without the slightest 
compunction, or fear of final contradiction. Al- 
though the facts involved in these matters entitle 
me to these declarations, I would not have over- 
stepped the bounds of modesty in so far as to make 
them had not my first experience forced upon me 
the conviction that the path of modesty in matters 
of this kind is not the one to success. I was so im- 
pressed with the exalted position of science, and so 
apprehensive of my own powers, that in my former 
publication I as much as apologized for my temerity 
in telling the scientific world things of which it did 
not have any previous knowledge. These last four 
years, however, have so enlarged my views and 
given me such a firm grasp and insight, that I no 
longer fear any man's judgment. I would, on the 
contrary, heartily welcome honest and competent 
criticism, being convinced that the same would not 
and could not but strengthen my position. 

As a matter of personal gratification, I am in- 
different to success; but I think the time has come 
when these matters should not continue to remain 
with me alone, but should become the property of 
all, not for my sake, nor simply for that of science, 
but for the sake of truth, and the benefit of man- 
kind. Had my previous statements been given the 



Introduction 3 

consideration they deserved, other persons, in all 
probability, would have made some of the many dis- 
coveries, at least, that it has now been my privilege 
to make single-handed. Still, the field is inex- 
haustible; that which I have discovered being but 
an index hand to that which is still to be discovered. 
Having no reason to doubt but that I am a properly 
organized member of the human family, I consider 
myself entitled to speak of my personal experience 
as in like manner applicable to every other member 
of that family. 

Having found it expedient to frequently address 
the reader in a " direct " manner, using the personal 
pronoun " you in so doing, I must ask his pardon 
for this liberty. In thus addressing him, I trust we 
shall be in better rapport; all I shall have to say 
thus becoming, in a manner, a confession as from 
author to reader. While I confide in him and 
make him participate in these vital discoveries, I 
want him to confide in me, in so far as to take it 
for granted that all I shall say is truthfully meant, 
and that it has been arrived at, not superficially, 
but only after the most searching and long-con- 
tinued investigations. We will thus become part- 
ners in a research as great as any that has ever 
agitated man's mind, or filled his soul with things 
of great moment. Having penetrated into matters 
which have heretofore been considered as occult, or 
inaccessible to man, my mode of proceeding will 
be found interesting as a guide to others wanting 
to pursue similar investigations. 

In the beginning, it was all brought about by my 



4 Duality of Voice 

simple desire, being a German, to speak the English 
language in the precise manner in which native-born 
persons speak it. For this purpose, I unwittingly 
pursued the same course which has been pursued 
by many others under similar circumstances ; namely, 
that of introspection. Having been indefatigable in 
this course (which others must not have been), after 
pursuing the same for some time I was startled 
by unforeseen discoveries. They were phenomenal, 
and far beyond any previous design, hope, or ex- 
pectation. After this, my original endeavor to 
speak the English language idiomatically correct 
became a matter of secondary importance. My 
eyes once opened, I continued to persevere in this 
course, and thus succeeded in penetrating deeper 
and deeper into matters heretofore deemed inaccess- 
ible to man. 

Having pursued investigations by means of intro- 
spection now for a number of years, it has become 
an easy habit with me, and I can recognize and 
pursue processes by which results are obtained 
through inner motive powers, almost as plainly as 
such by which results are obtained through visible 
and tangible means. The facts thus observed and 
recognized as truths have become so numerous as to 
be almost overwhelming, in number no less than in 
importance; so much so, that I scarcely know where 
to turn or where to commence, to be able to com- 
municate them all to others in due form and se- 
quence. These facts are not temporary, but are 
constant; in so far as they can be conjured up at 
any time and under any circumstances, and are 



Introduction 5 

always of the same nature. They are of an entirely 
reasonable, practical, and, for the most part, me- 
chanical nature; and are explanatory of the exercise 
of our faculties and functions, spiritually as well as 
materially. That these observations mirror actual 
proceedings going on within us for the production 
of vocal utterance, of breathing, motion, and locomo- 
tion, and the exercise of various other faculties and 
functions, it will be my endeavor, by actual demon- 
stration, to prove through this and future publica- 
tions. 

For the purpose of enabling others to pursue a 
similar course of studies, I shall take especial pains 
to point out my course of proceeding as plainly as I 
can — such course with me having been entirely ra- 
tional, positive, and direct, and without in any sense 
disturbing my ordinary mode of existence. The 
course pursued in physiologico-psychological stud- 
ies, in fact, does not differ greatly from that pursued 
in the study of purely psychological subjects, which 
is also carried on by means of introspection, though 
it is of a more positive nature. 

When the following was first written (it is nearly 
two years ago now), I intended, at an early date, to 
publish a short treatise on the subject of the voice 
only. Since then, however, the same has assumed 
greater and greater proportions, embracing many 
other subjects. Still I have deemed it best not to 
change this introduction in consequence thereof. 

Though not quite ready for another publication 
(the subject is so great and my knowledge so inade- 
quate), I do not know that I should have ever been 



6 Duality of Voice 

quite ready, but for several incidents, all happening 
about the same time, which have induced me to 
break the silence I have observed since the publica- 
tion of my book, The Basic Law of Vocal Utterance. 
These incidents, though in themselves apparently 
insignificant, have impressed me with the belief that 
I owe it to the public and myself to say something 
in explanation of what I have already said, and to 
add thereto (partly, at least) what has since been 
ascertained. 

In the November, 1896, number of Werner s 
Magazine ; I noticed the following: 

" A good example of the inadequacy of expressional 
terms in discussing vocal topics is shown by Mme. Clara 
Brinkerhoff and Mr. Emil Sutro. Mme. Brinkerhoff has 
been a contributor to this magazine, and has addressed 
musical bodies, for many years. Mr. Sutro is author of 
the book, The Basic Law of Vocal Utterance. Both of 
them maintain that the voice is something more or other 
than an expiratory current of air set into vibration by 
purely physical agencies. Mme. Brinkerhoff thinks that 
the voice is the utterance of the soul, and that the soul 
has its seat in the solar plexus. Mr. Sutro scoffs at the 
theory that the voice is only outcoming air vibrated at 
or by the cords situated in the larynx. He thinks that 
the ligaments under the tongue also serve as vocal cords, 
and that speech is the product of vibrating ingoing air 
as well as vibrating outcoming air. Just what they 
think the voice is neither of these persons makes clear to 
others. Their failure to express their thoughts, however, 
should not be taken as proof that they have not caught 
glimpses of truths of the greatest importance. Still, our 



Introduction 7 

impression is that their concepts are too vague to be put 
into intelligible language even if the expressional terms 
at hand were adequate. But, all things considered, the 
fact still remains that discussion will continue to be 
largely useless so long as one person does not know what 
the other person is talking about." 

In addition to all this, the proceedings of various 
societies in New York alone, judging by their re- 
ports also contained in the November, 1896, num- 
ber of Werner s Magazine, which is of unusual 
interest throughout, show how great is the interest 
which, at the present time, centres around this matter 
of the voice. In place of saying the " truth " in 
matters of the voice, as contained in my book, it 
would, perhaps, be more correct to have said, " the 
first ray of light that has ever penetrated the gloom 
and the mystery surrounding the nature of the 
voice. " In Werner s Magazine it is stated : 

" If Mr. Emil Sutro's book, The Basic Law of Vocal 
Utterance, be right, then other writers on vocal science 
are wrong. His statements are startling and revolution- 
ary. He claims to have discovered a new vocal cord 
and to be able to prove that speech sounds are the pro- 
duct of inspiration as well as expiration. The signifi- 
cance of this is apparent when it is realized that all vocal 
authorities, heretofore, have taught that voice is vocal- 
ized expiration, and that speech is this vocalized expira- 
tion articulated into words. 

" The author draws a sharp distinction between the air 
taken for life-purposes and the air taken for speech- 
purposes. He says that vital breathing can and should 



8 Duality of Voice 

go on independent of artistic breathing, and that the two 
processes need not and should not disturb nor conflict 
with one another. He combats the theory that the lungs 
are a reservoir of air, which in the vocal act is pressed 
against the vocal cords of the larynx, thereby producing 
tone, which is resonated and modified by the parts above 
the glottis. He maintains that it is a physical impossi- 
bility to give sufficient force and rapidity to the lung air 
to put muscular and cartilaginous tissue into tonal 
vibration, — that this force and this rapidity can come 
only from the internal atmospheric pressure, and that, 
therefore, preparatory lung inhalation for voice-purposes 
obstructs rather than aids the vocal act. He gives a new 
explanation of the formation of speech sounds, and offers 
various novel theories. 

" Many readers will hesitate to accept his views, yet as 
long as vocal science is still in a formative condition and 
involved in so much chaos and uncertainty, any attempt 
at a solution should receive careful consideration. " 

I have cited this able review in full, written by 
one whose life has been one act of devotion to the 
solution of these questions, as it will at once intro- 
duce the reader into the drift of my investigations 
as far as they had advanced up to that time. 

I have continued to steadily devote myself to the 
further prosecution of my investigations, never pub- 
lishing anything, scarcely ever speaking on this sub- 
ject to any one. The subject appeared to me so great 
and so far above my ability to master it that I, at 
first, looked around for assistance among those I 
deemed most likely to be able to render it. But no 
one had any assistance to offer, no one scarcely seemed 



Introduction 9 

even to comprehend what I was after. Thus, at last, 
almost in despair, I made up my mind that I must 
undertake this task single-handed ; and I have been 
at it, scarcely without interruption, ever since. 

Meanwhile, the play of " Much Ado about Noth- 
ing/' or ' The Farce about the Larynx/' con- 
tinued to go on bravely all over the world. I have 
watched it with a sense of pity, rather than amuse- 
ment. It appeared to me, more than anything else, 
like a game of blind man's buff, in which all the 
participants were blindfolded ; my own horizon, 
meanwhile, being illumined by roseate tints repre- 
senting continuous new discoveries, like a May 
morn before the rising of the sun. 

The voice has been treated as a separate mechani- 
cal issue, while it is the outcome of a series of both 
physical and spiritual issues. While the old school 
is reproducing, in its minutest details, the dead 
branch of a tree, I am portraying, in its majestic 
proportions, the broad expanse of a living oak. 

These anatomical details may interest scientists; 
they are valueless to the singer, as he has no control 
over the movements of the larynx. He need but 

attack ' ' his note in the right way, and all these 
muscles, sinews, cartilaginous tissues, etc., will fall 
into line, involuntarily and unsolicited. 

Now that I am offering innumerable proofs in cor- 
roboration of my assertions, I want scientists to 
take these matters seriously, and not to look upon 
this book, also, as some may possibly have felt in- 
clined to do in regard to my previous publication, 
as a " scientific curiosity " merely. There are no 



io Duality of Voice 

greater problems before the world to-day than are 
treated here. 

During all these years of unrequited labor, which 
extend far beyond the day on which I made my 
memorable discovery, my personal affairs meanwhile 
constantly suffering, with but one notable exception 
no hand was held out to me in succor. In view of 
this fact (and it is the experience of many who, in 
the privacy of their souls, are struggling after the 
light), I want to ask this question: With all the 
noble institutions for learning, why are there none 
to assist those who are attempting to solve ques- 
tions to be taught for the benefit and advancement 
of mankind ? True, there are scholarships and fel- 
lowships for students, but they are not available to 
persons advanced in years who have duties to per- 
form and families to support. When successful in 
the end, their reward — if there is any — often comes 
too late to be of any practical value. 

Such would be the case with me should any ma- 
terial acknowledgment come to me now, having of 
late attained to the leisure I had so much longed for, 
thanks to my previous labor and a brave son's de- 
votion and valued aid and assistance. No man, 
however, will ever know how long I have been kept 
under the ban of purely materialistic endeavors, 
while these higher things were occupying my mind 
and clamoring for recognition. A sum equal to 
that representing a single day's expenditure for 
falsely teaching matters connected with the voice, 
alone, the world over, not to speak of other matters 
of still greater importance, would have sufficed for a 



Introduction n 

number of years, if not for a lifetime, to place me in 
a position to devote myself exclusively to the ex- 
position of the correct principles underlying these 
important subjects. As it has been with me, no 
doubt it is and always has been with many others 
in different fields of research. 

Since the publication of my previous book, I 
have had four years of continuous experience, dur- 
ing which the statements therein made have been 
strengthened and enlarged, so that I am now ready 
to support them with an endless array of proof. 
That book, however, was the beginning of what 
some day will be regarded as a greater movement in 
the right direction than any previous one, for attain- 
ing an insight into nature's occult work in creating, 
developing, and sustaining the living organism, and 
the exercise of its faculties and functions, more 
especially man s faculties and functions. The sub- 
ject, however, is of so subtle a nature that it cannot 
be treated like a mathematical problem or a chemi- 
cal analysis; still, I shall do the best I can with such 
means as are at my command. 

Recently an acquaintance who is interested in 
vocal culture asked me how I was getting along, and 
I answered, telling him something like what I have 
said in the preceding. He replied: 

1 That is the trouble with you Germans. This is 
a live world, a practical world ; we want facts, results 
— something we can turn to account and make use 
of." 

This impatience (and who can blame those who are 
suffering, or those who, being young and talented, 



i2 Duality of Voice 

want to be led into the right path) throws the 
door wide open to all kinds of charlatanism — charla- 
tanism which is honest and charlatanism which is 
dishonest, the former, being more readily trusted, 
often working the greater harm. The best teach- 
ing for the present, in default of a science, is that 
which is based simply on experience; the pseudo- 
science now being taught being worse than no science 
at all. 

While the exercise of speech is next to universal 
with all men, no one has any idea of how it is exer- 
cised ; the wisest being as much in the dark as the 
least informed. 

This is what so eminent a man as Oliver Wendell 
Holmes had to say on the subject in one of his lec- 
tures, delivered not many years before his death : 

" Talking has been clearly explained and successfully 
imitated by artificial contrivances. We know that the 
moist membranous edges of a narrow crevice (the 
glottis) vibrate as the reed of a clarionet vibrates, and 
thus produce the human bleat. We narrow or widen, or 
check or stop the flow of this sound by the lips, the 
tongue, the teeth, and thus articulate, or break into joints, 
the even current of sound. The sound varies with the 
degree and kind of interruption, as the ' babble' of the 
brook with the shape and size of its impediments — peb- 
bles, or rocks, or dams. To whisper, is to articulate 
without bleating, or vocalizing ; to coo, as babies do, is to 
bleat, or vocalize, without articulating. Machines are 
easily made that bleat not unlike human beings. A bit 
of India-rubber tube tied around a piece of glass tube, is 
one of the simplest voice-uttering contrivances. To 



Introduction 13 

make a machine that articulates, is not so easy." [The 
Italics are Dr. Holmes's.] 

It is not the Jmmorist Holmes, however, who has 
said this, as one would suppose that it was, but it 
is the writer, scientist, and thinker, who was in dead 
earnest when he gave unto the world this " defini- 
tion of the gift of speech.' ' 

Any comment on my part would but weaken the 
sense of the ludicrous this " explanation ' of so 
great a subject, even from a mere mechanical stand- 
point, must arouse in the reader. Yet Dr. Holmes's 

explanation " is not any more preposterous than 
that of many other scientists of the present day. 

Teachers have said that, not being a teacher, I 
could not know anything about the voice. As if 
they had the sole patent right to the voice, and 
others held their voices but from them, in fee! I, 
however, took the liberty of looking into my own 
voice and trying to find out whence it came and 
what it was made of. It is not much of a voice, to 
be sure ; yet it has the common attributes of all 
voices. Besides, I should like to know who, in 
truth, is a teacher. He who over a narrow path 
follows the footsteps of others, or he who strikes 
out boldly for the root and the truth of a matter, 
and, disregarding precedents, goes down to the very 
bowels of the earth, if need be, to bring it to the 
surface? 

The knowledge of even the best of us is not much 
more than some froth on the surface of the well of 
truth. Yet that froth is all these timid souls have 



H Duality of Voice 

dared to examine. They have not had the courage 
to dive down deep into its fathomless flood. Many 
a truth has been taught by those who had been con- 
sidered innocent of any knowledge thereof. I am 
one of these " innocents/' and, on the whole, am 
not sorry for not having been imbued more with the 
knowledge, or supposed knowledge, of the present 
day. 

We are so much the slaves of habit that we be- 
come reconciled to any condition, almost, no matter 
how undesirable or absurd it may be. Thus bio- 
logical science has been going along in a rut for 
centuries, but little having been ascertained of vital 
importance; nor could this have been otherwise, 
considering the modes of investigation. I was not 
surrounded by so many trees that I could not see 
the woods. My perspective was as clear as a bird's, 
that soars above and beyond the smoke of the city 
and the dust in the eyes of the heirs of generation 
upon generation of anatomical and physiological 
research, burying beneath its lumber the clear in- 
sight of the soul. Thus, ignorance with me may 
indeed have been bliss. Yet I do not want to 
place myself in a position as deprecating science, 
having the highest appreciation for all its endeavors. 
I deprecate science only in so far as, dealing with 
matter, it attempts to draw inspiration therefrom 
as to spiritual issues; and the voice certainly is a 
spiritual issue. 

The following appears in the Encyclopedia Britan- 
nica, under the heading of " Animal Magnetism " : 

" Mr. Heidenhain, after stating that in conformity 



Comments of a Reviewer 15 

with the manner in which one muscle Is affected, 
others become similarly affected, proceeds to say: 
1 Probably the reflex excitement would extend still 
farther, but I naturally consider it out of the ques- 
tion to try whether the muscles of respiration would 
become affected. It is easily understood that such 
experiments require the greatest caution and may 
be very seldom carried out/ " 

Valiant Mr. Heidenhain, brave explorer on a new 
and " dangerous' ' field of research. This is the 
Ultima Thule which any of these bold adventurers 
have endeavored to reach. My work began where 
theirs came to an end. Though I have not reached 
the " North Pole/ 1 I have gone far beyond any one 
else. 

COMMENTS OF A DISTANT REVIEWER 

This entire subject is of so subtle a nature that I 
must warn the reader to be patient in its study and 
careful of his judgment. Should the present work, 
however, also fail to elicit the attention of my fellow- 
men, some thinker, perhaps, of a future generation, 
upon discovering a copy of this book on the dusty 
shelves of an antiquarian, while looking over its 
time-stained leaves and after struggling with its ver- 
nacular, may be struck with some remark coinciding 
with ideas arrived at by himself and other scientists 
of that day, and while commenting upon his * * find, 
may possibly deliver himself thus : 

" As the nineteenth century of the Christian era 
was drawing to a close, a citizen of the (then) youth- 
ful country of the United States of North America 



1 6 Duality of Voice 

published a book which contained disclosures far 
in advance of his time and generation — truths, in 
fact, concerning life and the exercise of our faculties 
and functions, which, if properly understood, might 
have eventually led to even the solution of the very 
mystery of the soul. Though science at that remote 
period had made marvellous strides forward, its en- 
deavors were mostly of a utilitarian character, or 
consisted of efforts to explain phenomena from a 
strictly materialistic standpoint. The author of this 
book, however, by dint of a combination of extra- 
ordinary circumstances, which induced him to search 
for causes of phenomena within, in place of outside 
of himself, had succeeded in breaking through the 
barriers which had, theretofore, separated phenom- 
ena which were called * natural ' from those which, 
by the majority of mankind, were still supposed to 
be ' supernatural/ or, at least, unexplainable, un- 
knowable, beyond the ken of man. 

He was thus enabled to penetrate more deeply 
than any one ever had before into the knowledge of 
the mysterious forces which engender and sustain 
organic life. Had he been properly understood, the 
compass of human knowledge would have been 
greatly enhanced, and the race itself liberated from 
the narrow limits to which it had been confined by 
the scientists almost as much as by the theologians 
(by the doctors of the body almost as much as by 
those of the soul) of his day. Some writers of that 
period delighted in depicting a state of affairs several 
centuries ahead of their time. The changes which 
were supposed to have taken place, however, had 



Comments of a Reviewer 1 7 

reference to material developments only, and did 
not contemplate any advancement of a purely spir- 
itual nature. 

! Though the founder of the Christian religion, 
and other men of a high order of intellectual and 
moral insight, had laid down rules for ' deportment ' 
which to a great extent still govern the world ; in 
regard to a spiritual insight, the dearth, the waste, 
the discord, the distraction, the unrest, the ' Welt- 
schmerz ' (as the Germans called it), the despair of 
science, which knew but and dealt but with the 
baser part of our existence, unable to penetrate into 
the higher, was then at its height. The ' miracle ' 
had ceased to exercise its influence over the intellect- 
ual classes, and knowledge had not taken its place. 

! This writer, however, through his discoveries, 
had opened up the way — made a beginning — to a 
penetration of science into the realms of the spirit ; 
and a substitution of faith based on facts for one 
based on tradition and fancy only. Religion and 
science, having been factors of a different, almost 
antagonistic, order, thus at that early period already 
might have become reconciled and united through 
knowledge ; as to some extent, though by different 
means, they have become since. 

1 In thus gaining more knowledge, more light re- 
garding the motive powers which govern our exist- 
ence, the shackles which had overwhelmed the soul 
would have long since fallen to the ground, and a 
truly brotherly spirit would have prevailed among 
all classes and peoples in place of much of the pre- 
judice, the insincerity, the overbearance, the ani- 



1 8 Duality of Voice 

mosity, the cruelty, and the insanity even of the 
believers in (or inheritors of) one spiritual theory 
(often misnamed religion) as against those of another. 

" The world's thought, just previous to that time, 
had made great strides forward through the recogni- 
tion of the laws of evolution, which culminated in 
one master mind, through great elaboration and by 
citing numerous examples, assigning cogent and 
necessary reasons therefor. The world should have 
been ripe, therefore, for this greater movement which 
it was now called upon to face; a movement which 
went beyond the mere recognition of phenomena 
and penetrated into a priori causes. Strange to say, 
it either could not or would not understand; being 
still bound by fetters which held it in a vise-like 
embrace of previously conceived ideas as to the im- 
possibility of penetrating into matters of this nature, 
and which prevented it from even testing the numer- 
ous proofs offered by this writer as to the correctness 
of his assertions. His investigations, if properly 
understood, would have brought spirituality home to 
us; they would have made it accessible to us. It 
would have ceased to be a phantom, and would have 
become a reality, a friend on whom we could count, 
in place of a mysterious and incomprehensible 
stranger. 

" Beginning with discovering the dual nature of 
the voice, the writer of this book opened up the way 
to the comprehension of the mystery of man's dual 
nature in all its relations. He made the discovery 
that the oesophagus is of equal importance with the 
trachea in carrying on the process of respiration and 



Comments of a Reviewer 19 

in exercising the faculty of vocal expression ; that 
for these purposes oesophagus and trachea are to an 
equal degree directly amenable to the influence of 
the atmospheric air; that the dual nature of organic 
beings in general, and of man in particular, is rep- 
resented by the hemispheres of the thorax and the 
abdomen ; that the former in its entirety represents 
spiritual and the latter in its entirety material issues ; 
that the trachea and its branches on the one hand, 
and the alimentary canal on the other, respectively 
represent these issues more directly ; that the fusing 
and blending of these issues has for its result the 
phenomenon called life ; that the severance of these 
issues has for its result the phenomenon called death ; 
that there are thus positive limits, place, and sur- 
roundings assigned to material and immaterial issues 
within the sphere of our bodily existence, and that 
combined they pervade our entire system ; that all 
phenomena of life, especially all phenomena of a 
spiritual nature, and among these more ostensibly 
those of vocal utterance, owe their origin to these 
issues momentarily joining hands; that in so doing 
there is a transitory fusion, which for an endless 
number of purposes is brought about in an endless 
number of ways. 

1 He discovered further that the larynx, previously 
supposed to be the only instrument for the pro- 
duction of sounds, has its counterpart in the 
1 replica ' (the ' larynx ' of the oesophagus), located 
beneath the tongue and represented by the fraenum 
linguae and surrounding cartilaginous tissues; that 
no vocal sound can be produced except by the co- 



20 Duality of Voice 

operation of the larynx with the replica. He dis- 
covered the circulation of, and the origin of vocal 
sounds, and many other important issues. 

" Through his discoveries, if properly recognized, 
all the sciences dealing with life would have been 
placed upon a new and far more reasonable and 
comprehensible basis than they had rested upon 
before. 

! These discoveries would have tended to under- 
mine the basis of every materialistic school of phi- 
losophy, and to place those with spiritual and ideal 
propensities upon higher and firmer ground. Had 
they been properly appreciated and further ex- 
panded by others it would have eventually be- 
come possible to develop all our faculties to the 
full extent of their ability, and to correct faults, 
errors, and defects caused by wrong education or 
heredity, through the application of laws at the 
very root of our existence; laws which were then, 
and in fact to a great extent are to this day unknown. 
It may, in fact, be said without exaggeration 
that his discoveries, which were all made within a 
period not exceeding five years, outweighed in im- 
portance all other discoveries combined relating to 
physiologico-psychical issues made previous to his 
time." 

I can see many a reader smile after perusing the 
foregoing, and perhaps saying: 

Here is a Jules Verne of a new type come 
to deal with a novel subject/ ' 

Yet the time will come when the reader will cease 
to smile, and look upon these matters seriously, I 



Comments of a Reviewer 21 

do not mean, however, to throw down a gauntlet to 
science on these momentous questions in a vaunting 
and reckless spirit ; but come as a petitioner rather, 
asking it to investigate. 

My time and generation are but like a flash from 
the orb of eternity, but the laws I have discovered 
are as eternal as that orb itself. With all the scien- 
tific investigations now going on, there has not even 
an approach been made which might have led up to 
them ; nay, not a hint or a hypothesis, even, leading 
toward the same. Science, in fact, had nothing to 
do with them ; the first man might have made them 
almost as well as the latest. They are all grappling 
with matter, while I have grasped the spirit that is 
in, yet above, all living matter. 

In making these discoveries I have bent a sail 
upon the crafts of physiology and psychology, which 
have been aimlessly, almost hopelessly, drifting on 
the shallow waters of the examination of isolated 
material phenomena. This sail will enable them to 
reach the broad expanse of the ocean, where they 
will be able to make soundings in its deepest waters. 

Professor Huxley declared that during his fifty 
years of experience as a student and teacher not one 
thing really new had ever come under his observa- 
tion. Had he lived to become acquainted with these 
facts I feel confident he would have declared them 
to be new. 

The venerable Professor Virchow, the other day, 
in an address before the International Congress of 
Physicians at Moscow, made use, in substance, of 
these words: " The cell is immortal — there must 



22 Duality of Voice 

have been a previous cell for its generation. On 
this fact as a basis (ascertained by the aid of the 
microscope) the science of the coming century may 
securely rest." 

And he set this down as the greatest achievement 
of science in respect to the recognition of the phe- 
nomena of life. Yet there is nothing more fallible 
than the microscope in ascertaining facts regarding 
the knowledge of life. It may to some extent re- 
veal the essence of matter, but it is not given to it 
to assist in recognizing the principles which govern 
life and the spirit of life. 

FRAGMENTS 

This book, in a sense, is a personal narrative, and 
necessarily must be so, giving an account, as it 
does, of observations in experiments upon myself. 
In making these experiments I have endeavored to 
treat myself impersonally, as a subject, so to say, 
placed at my disposal for experimental purposes; 
my ego having been the object as well as the subject 
of my investigations. In occasionally speaking of 
the results thus obtained in a eulogistic manner, this 
should not be looked upon as self-praise, therefore, 
but rather as an impersonal mode of describing what 
has come under some one's observation — this*' some 
one " being myself. I want to place the matters I 
have observed before the reader in the right light, 
and do not hesitate to say or fear to say just what I 
think to be the truth. If I were to wait for others 
to say these things the reader who does not compre- 
hend their latitude as I do might have to wait a long 



Fragments 23 

time before he could grasp the subject in its entire 
importance. I want to say this much as an apology 
and a vindication for frequent indulgences in appar- 
ent self-eulogism. 

I have another motive for making such remarks ; 
viz., the desire of rousing the scientific world from 
its apathy regarding these matters. These laudatory 
remarks may wound its pride, and possibly arouse 
its ire, — more especially in view of their coming from 
a layman, — and thus induce it to study these mat- 
ters, if but for the purpose and with the view of 
controverting them. I would hail such an endeavor 
with pleasure, not having the slightest fear of it's 
ability to successfully controvert any of the vital 
facts I have ascertained, and whose correctness I ex- 
pect to prove by a great array of facts with accom- 
panying proofs. 

When I first began to make these studies, I made 
numerous notes as new features happened to present 
themselves to my mind. I have encountered no in- 
considerable difficulty in sifting this material so as 
to present my experiences in as connected and con- 
secutive a manner as possible. In this, however, I 
have only partially succeeded ; nor have I been able 
to altogether avoid repetitions. For these short- 
comings I must plead a want of time. For some 
time past, however, my experiences have accumu- 
lated so rapidly that I have ceased to take any notes 
whatever, trusting to my memory that these mental 
notes may be recalled at the proper time. No doubt 
some things, even of importance, have thus been 
lost sight of. Still, while pursuing similar studies, 



24 Duality of Voice 

they may in the course of time turn up in some one 
else's mind. 

In looking over some of my notes I have found 
things which I have deemed worthy of preservation. 
I let some of these follow in a promiscuous manner. 
This, it must be admitted, is not in accordance with 
scientific usage. But I am not a scientist, simply 
an amateur; and take advantage of the privileges 
this fact gives me. If I were to conform to strict 
scientific rules and " etiquette/' years might elapse 
before I could get these matters into proper shape. 
It will always remain a mystery to me, however, 
why these things should have come to me at all — so 
unworthy, so unadapted to their proper exposition. 
In order to do them justice, they should have come 
to one complete master of his time, young, strong, 
possessed of a wide range of knowledge and a deep 
insight. 

I will now let follow some of the matters I have 
spoken of: 

My personality and my work must go together, 
until others relieve me of the latter by making it 
their work to the same extent that I have made it 
mine. You cannot separate the fiddle from the 
fiddler, neither having any significance apart from 
each other, except by the fiddler perpetuating that 
which the fiddle produces — the composition, — by 
writing it down, thus transmitting it to others. 
This I am trying to do by this book. 

No doubt some of the things which have come 
under my observation in some form or other are 
already known to science, and are, therefore, a cor- 



Fragments 25 

roboration, or an explanation, only, of things already 
known. With me, nevertheless, all is original; and 
I may therefore justly claim that if any of these 
matters have been discovered before, I, at least, have 
re-discovered them. 

If I were an institution possessing a guaranty of 
continued existence I might value the present lightly, 
knowing a future would come when these matters will 
be fully understood. Being a creature of the pres- 
ent, however, which may be turned into the past — 
especially at my time of life — at almost any moment, 
these matters should become known at the earliest 
opportunity; some of them being of so subtle a 
nature that they may require personal explanation 
and illustration. They have been hidden from us in 
the past ; should they fail to be made known now, 
the same opportunity may not arise again for cen- 
turies. 

I do not claim any special sagacity over others for 
having made these discoveries, and disbelieve alto- 
gether in miraculous interposition. Yet I do not 
want to be prejudiced in any direction. 

We are surrounded by the mysterious and the 
miraculous; and that which is called " natural" as 
a rule is far more mysterious than that which is 
called " miraculous." 

Truth is stranger than fiction "; which is un- 
doubtedly true. We can imagine that only of which 
we have at least some knowledge, but there are realms 
of truth beyond us of which we have no knowledge. 
Besides, these revelations are of so extraordinary a 



26 Duality of Voice 

nature that I cannot altogether close my eyes to the 
fact that I may have been led on to them by agencies 
beyond my personal power of volition. I will cite 
but one reason why such an idea might be justly 
entertained by me. 

That which originally led me on to these investi- 
gations, as already mentioned, was the simple desire 
to speak the English language just as native-born 
persons speak it. Although I eventually became 
aware of the fact that this was next to impossible, 
yet I persisted in this endeavor to such an extent 
that I spent far more time on it than it would have 
deserved had I been convinced that I would be finally 
successful. Again and again I said to myself, " This 
is a foolish, absurd, unworthy undertaking for a 
person of intelligence " ; the next minute I was at 
it again, trying to utter this sound or pronounce 
that word in the " correct English fashion." 

I want to ask, What was it that impelled me to 
thus persist, almost against my wish, will, and bet- 
ter insight ? When, after many years of this almost 
wanton endeavor, I discovered the dual nature of 
the voice, I could not help but think that an influ- 
ence beyond myself had been exercised to impel me 
to persist in these efforts, which were then crowned 
with a success of a different order, and far beyond 
any previous expectation. / then found what I had 
been after unknown to myself. To simply say I was 
" infatuated " would not explain this strange ad- 
herence to what for a long while looked like a vain 
and hopeless undertaking. 

I am aware that for me to say, as I have just now 



Fragments 27 

said, " I cannot altogether close my eyes to the fact 
that I may have been led on by agencies beyond my 
personal power of volition,' ' may expose me to ridi- 
cule in the eyes of some persons; besides being a 
contradiction to my other convictions. Yet I say so 
deliberately and am quite willing to abide by the 
consequences: It is a case of the duality of our 
nature, which impels me to take a naturalistic or 
biogenetic view of things in one direction, yet forces 
me to take a spiritualistic or abiogenetic view of 
them in another direction. I do not comprehend 
those who under all circumstances are capable of 
pursuing either the one direction or the other. 



I might say I have been on a prospecting tour to a 
new country, where I found the outcroppings of 
numerous veins of precious ore. These veins are 
true fissure veins, penetrating, as they do, into the 
very bowels of the earth ; and it will take centuries 
to exhaust them in all their dips, spurs, and angles. 



It will be a matter of surprise that a layman, one 
not of the tribe which make science the pursuit of 
their lives, should have penetrated into these mys- 
teries. It must not be lost sight of, however, that 
science, as a rule, deals with things visible and 
tangible, while the voice is a sensation which, re- 
garding its origin in the ego, cannot be observed 
outside of the ego. One may by close observation 
trace the origin of one's voice to its innermost chan- 
nels, and thus learn much about the subtlest charac- 
teristics of its nature, a proceeding to which it would 



28 Duality of Voice 

not be possible to subject any one else's voice. 
The same conditions prevail in regard to other sen- 
sations which have also come under my, at least, 
partial observation. 



Science, as a rule, has been satisfied with the ob- 
servation of results, of phenomena, without attempt- 
ing to penetrate into causes, which seemed to be 
unalterably hidden from its gaze. Special features, 
however, of the voice have been ably and success- 
fully observed and described by many eminent per- 
sons. To these I have not given any attention, 
partly because they were beyond my sphere, and 
partly (not being a musician) because they were be- 
yond my power of observation. 



In looking for the voice, anatomy in its minute 
examinations of the larynx has but opened up a 
grave for us to gaze into. And what have we be- 
held ? A skeleton of the voice's body — of its soul 
not a trace. This skeleton, to boot, is but a portion 
of the mechanism of the voice; of its other parts, 
equally important, science has not even known that 
they were in existence. Like a palaeontologist or 
an archaeologist, I have dug up these other parts or 
fragments from all around; some were found close 
at hand, others quite a distance off. I have skilfully 
put them together, and have thus constructed a 
fairly complete torso, or framework of the voice. I 
say " torso,' ' though I may justly claim more than 
that, having again infused the soul into it which had 
fled from it; and, see, it has become a living thing. 



Fragments 29 

That the wonderful apparatus contained in the 
throat is for a purpose there cannot, of course, be 
any doubt. It is but partly for the purpose attrib- 
uted to it, however, and, until we better compre- 
hend this part-purpose, especially in view of the fact 
that we have no control over its mechanism, it will be 
best, as far as singers and elocutionists are concerned, 
to surrender it to and leave it with the anatomists. 

To the ultimate aim of science — the knowledge of 
life — I have contributed matters of a nature deemed 
beyond the province of the knowledge of man. 
Was it ever intended that they should be known ? 
On more than one occasion I have been puzzled to 
know whether to go on with these investigations ; 
whether I had a right to go on with them. Still, I 
was sustained by the fact that I had been led on to 
them. For what other purpose could this have been 
done but for that of making the results thereof 
known ? They could serve no good purpose in 
remaining locked up within myself. 

It is my belief that the ordinary course of events 
is never interfered with ; but that great events may 
be inaugurated by unseen agencies and guided by 
unseen hands. The responsibility which has de- 
volved upon me, incompetent and unprepared as I 
am, is almost too great ; still, I must try to discharge 
it to the best of my ability. 



I have no personal motive of either fame or for- 
tune. At one time I would have been pleased with 
such results; now it is too late. If not in my day, 
some day, I trust, some one will read and compre- 



3° Duality of Voice 

hend ; some one will not mind the trouble of investi- 
gation. It is not likely that I shall forever remain 
the only " seeing one." 

It would have been better if I had not published 
a line for at least ten years. It would have taken 
that long to say what I want to say, properly. My 
time is too uncertain, however, to run such a risk. 
My friends are falling to the right and left by the 
roadside. I must be up and doing; must make a 
beginning at least. 

We must be satisfied with reaching matters ap- 
proximately, and argue by analogy to some extent ; 
and also hope that others will take them up and 
push them along a little farther than we have been 
able to do. Perhaps in the course of time a perfect 
insight may be arrived at. 



The community of man is a necessity; a separate 
existence, an anomaly. We are dependent and in- 
terdependent upon one another. Man cannot es- 
cape his fellow-man. In the remotest desert his 
spirit is still in communication with him. If it were 
not so, who would not at times want to flee all, 
escape from all ? 

I have but one fear — inability, for some reason or 
other, to finish my work. I feel like the heroine of 
a celebrated German novelist, travelling about with 
a trunk filled with gold, which she distributed among 
the deserving poor as fast as she came across them. 
Meanwhile she was in constant fear lest her life 
should ebb out before all was distributed, and its 
precious contents lost to those for whom they were 



Fragments 31 

intended. If there were any way of imparting this 
knowledge other than by writing it down, I would 
gladly resort to it. But how can I reach the few 
who are capable of and willing to take up these 
questions, except by communicating them to the 
many ? These " few " will be found in all parts of 
the world, for these truths apply to ^// men, inde- 
pendent of sex, race, or country. 



My cry is not for recognition. My personality 
might be blotted out, like that of millions of others, 
without its being noticed, yet, by virtue of this trust 
which has been reposed in me, what a loss it would 
be ! My cry is for investigation and the cooperation 
of others, so that this work may be carried on inde- 
pendent of myself. Meantime, I cannot transfer 
this task to others. I must first explain all that it 
is in my power to explain. I can then shift it from 
my shoulders onto theirs. They must be educated 
up to it before they can take hold of it as I have 
taken hold of it. 



When I first announced my discoveries, I gave all 
I possessed, supposing others would see as I saw 
and comprehend as I did ; having no doubt but that 
the world would at once acknowledge their truths and 
accept their precepts. I have since found that the 
world can get along very comfortably with a vast 
amount of want of knowledge. I therefore made 
up my mind not to be quite so rash again in making 
it my beneficiary, not till I was better prepared for 
the purpose ; this other book of mine having been 



32 Duality of Voice 

finished rather hastily in the erroneous belief that 
this knowledge was at once and imperatively needed. 

Since publishing this previous book I have also 
found, which I did not know at that time, that my 
very mode of investigation (by means of introspec- 
tion) was new; that no one had ever looked into 
matters of this kind in the manner I had ; besides, 
it seems strange that in this age of keen investiga- 
tion of the most trivial matters, no one should 
have deemed it worth his while to look into these 
more important subjects. 

Regarding the anatomical investigations of the 
larynx, and anatomical, coupled with physiological, 
investigations generally, let me ask a question : Sup- 
posing a palace with a million apartments, each one 
in succession more luxuriously furnished than its 
predecessor, would they avail anything to its sole 
inhabitant, if that inhabitant were blind ? 

We have obtained a fair conception of the wonder- 
ful palace, the human body, its numberless apart- 
ments and their luxurious furnishings, but do not 
comprehend their meaning, except in a remote and 
unsatisfactory mechanical sense. We are the blind 
that inhabit it. Most of these apartments will re- 
main meaningless to our understanding until we 
ascertain what use the sovereign, the soul, which 
reigns therein, is making of them, not only mechani- 
cally, but spiritually as well. For the soul lives in 
them all, though it is supposed that it lives only 
in its throne-room of the brain and that it never 
descends from the throne set up in the same. 

Just here biologists have blundered, trying to get 



Fragments 33 

hold of psyche by pursuing matter bereft of life ; or 
investigating life in other beings instead of that 
inherent in themselves. The vivisection of all the 
frogs in the world will not give us the first know- 
ledge of the frog's soul; certainly not of our soul. 
The knowledge of the anatomical construction of 
the larynx has brought us no nearer the knowledge 
of the mystery of the voice than that of the brain 
has brought us to that of the soul. We must under- 
stand the process by which the mechanism of the 
brain is set in motion before we can begin to under- 
stand our mode of thinking. We must comprehend 
the manner in which a musical instrument is to be 
used before we can begin to draw music from the 
same. And so must we understand the spirit which 
moves the mechanism of the voice (of which so far 
we have known but a single factor), if we want to 
understand our mode of using it. 

Does any one seriously think that by photograph- 
ing vocal sounds, or passing a mirror down his throat 
and watching the movements of the vocal cords, 
he will observe anything that will lead him to an in- 
timate knowledge of nature's subtle process by which 
vocal sounds are produced ? As well look at the 
face of a clock and see its hands move, and then say 
you have arrived at a knowledge of the hidden in- 
tricate mechanism of the works of the clock. The 
mechanism of the instrument of the voice is a thou- 
sand times more intricate than that of a clock. It 
lives, it breathes, it moves, it expands and contracts, 
it rises and falls, it gathers, it gives — now here, now 
there. 



34 Duality of Voice 

Starting from the supposition that life is too subtle, 
too intangible a thing to have its innermost opera- 
tions disclosed by the clumsy work of our hands or 
the dull vision of our eyes, though increased in 
power a thousandfold, I matched the subtle work 
of my voice with the subtler of my brain, and thus, 
undisturbed by any extraneous agency whatever, 
watched the process by which, first, simple mechan- 
ical, then articulated sounds, and finally sounds 
linked together into speech, are produced. In so 
doing I traced sounds through the labyrinth of 
numerous avenues to their original sources — the 
organism of all our faculties, instead of being confined 
to their end organs, being wide-spread over our entire 
system. 



Physiologists as a rule are satisfied with the 
observation and exposition of phenomena. I have 
endeavored to explain phenomena. I have gone 

behind the returns/' as politicians say. I have 
lifted the mysterious veil, and have obtained glimpses 
at the process of life. In this manner the voice of 
the oesophagus was first discovered, which, in logi- 
cal sequence, has carried me from one discovery to 
another. Once in the confidence of nature, it freely 
opened up to me its heart. Comprehending one 
thing led me on to the comprehension of others. 

There is no study which is as fascinating as that 
pursued by introspection. It is self-compensating 
in the highest degree ; all facts thereby evolved being 
the logical sequence of others previously ascertained. 
Or, if not always in sequence, they all fit into the 



Fragments 35 

same system ; everything that has been ascertained 
being a stone which was waiting to be placed in a 
certain niche to fulfil a certain purpose in the con- 
struction of a harmonious edifice. There was no 
waste, no material entirely lost ; nor will there be at 
any future time. If similar studies will be pursued 
by those specially fitted for the purpose, the time 
may not be far distant when there will not be an 
atom of our material existence whose meaning and 
purpose will not be understood. The laws which I 
claim to have discovered will assist in this accom- 
plishment, as they are of so broad a nature that 
they may be said to form the substructure to forces 
and conditions which are at the very root of our 
existence. I do not pretend to say that in this 
little book they have been properly treated, nor 
that I possess the ability, under the best of circum- 
stances, to thus treat them. I have but stated what 
has come under my observation, and have stated it 
in as simple and direct a manner as my instinct and 
my ability have taught me to state it. 

I have been up on Mount Washington to see the 
sun rise. It w r as a beautiful picture; still, there 
were clouds in the way which here and there ob- 
scured my vision, as was to be expected from the 
unwonted height to which I had risen, and the dis- 
tant horizon. 



I am not writing for a class, but for the multitude 
to which I belong, and of which, in its aspirations, 
its hopes, its sincerity, and its ignorance regard- 
ing specific knowledge, I form a part. Hence my 



36 Duality of Voice 

thoughts are its thoughts and my language its 
language. There will be no difficulty, therefore, 
for all to understand me and to profit by my 
experience. 

My observations result in the triumph of the sen- 
sation, the feeling (common to all), over the exact 
sciences (known to but few). Science, for the most 
part, is satisfied with dissecting or analyzing. My 
endeavor has been to construct ; to form the whole 
out of parts instead of reducing the whole into parts. 
My guide has been instinct coupled with common- 
sense, — that rarest of all the senses in spite of its 
name. How far it has guided me aright, it will be 
the province of science to judge. 

I may be asked why, in treating upon so ' ' simple ' ' 
a subject as the human voice (my only endeavor in 
the beginning), I want to move heaven and earth, 
and press them into my service. My answer is, 
Wherever I touched the subject of the voice, I 
found it to be in correlation with all other subjects. 

My great desire now is, that I may be granted the 
time and retain the ability to write out all I have 
ascertained ; while my greatest wonder is, that these 
things should have waited for me at all to be made 
known ; why they should not have been discovered 
centuries ago. My eyes once opened, I found them 
lying about within the easy reach of my arm and the 
mere assistance of my pick and shovel, like precious 
ore in a newly discovered mining country. I had 
but to open the lid of the mysterious casket which 
had been intrusted to me, and all these great 
truths escaped from the same; not to disappear, 



11 Basic Law of Vocal Utterance " 37 

however, as they did in the fable, but to remain 
with me and to be made known through me to the 
world. 



The best part of my life has been spent in this, 
my adopted country. Though I experience no 
difficulty in expressing myself in the English lan- 
guage, still it is not my native tongue, and I some- 
times feel as if I might have said some things better 
if I had said them in German. 



Looking at the many volumes written on the sub- 
ject of the larynx alone, and considering that during 
all this time its associate, the replica, without whose 
assistance not one vocal sound can ever be uttered, 
has remained unknown, though in plain sight and 
* in everybody's mouth,' ' one cannot help but think 
of Goethe's lines: 

" Ein Kerl der speculirt 

1st wie ein Thier, auf duerrer Haide 
Von einem boesen Geist im Kreis herum gefuehrt, 
Und ringsumher liegt schoene gruene Waide." 

(" A theorist is like unto a beast 

On barren soil by evil sprite led round and round 
Within a narrow circle, though beyond there is a feast 
Of pasture green on fertile ground.") 

" THE BASIC LAW OF VOCAL UTTERANCE " 

My earlier work, entitled as above, was written 
under peculiar circumstances. After discovering 
the fact that sounds proceed from beneath as well 



38 Duality of Voice 

as from above the tongue, light streamed in upon 
me on so many subjects I had previously attempted 
to solve that I was almost dazed thereby. I 
thought it my duty to make these matters known, 
and attempted to describe them as they appeared to 
me. They were all perfectly clear to me, and even 
to-day there is scarcely a thing I then said that 
does not wholly stand its ground. Still, to-day, 
viewing things from an advanced point of view, 
much of that which was then expressed pragmati- 
cally, almost in a single sentence, and which then 
appeared to be sufficient, I am convinced requires 
considerable elaboration and elucidation. 

Take, for instance, this dictum : " The manner in 
which we breathe for speech is by raising and lower- 
ing the tongue," etc. This is perfectly correct, and 
positive proof will be advanced hereafter as to its 
being so. 

I thought these matters would be readily under- 
stood, not knowing at that time that between the 
manner in which I had reached conclusions and the 
one in which conclusions had been reached by others 
who had also made a study of these matters, there 
was a vast difference. Unknown to myself I had 
lived a life of my own. I had given myself up to 
these matters in a manner no one ever had before; 
having been everlastingly at it, holding on with a 
tenacity that knew no restraint. In this manner I 
wrung facts from nature that may have never been 
intended to be revealed. 

There was something Faust-like in it all, and I 
sometimes shudder at my own temerity. Still, 



" Basic Law of Vocal Utterance " 39 

I had no such thought when I so persistently con- 
tinued trying to fathom the mystery of vocal sounds. 
Viewing it in its proper light it was a narrow and 
every-day undertaking. I was fairly staggered, there- 
fore, when I reached such unlooked-for results. 

The reader, however, may ask, and I feel it in- 
cumbent upon me, as well, to tell him, What was the 
nature of these results ? Wherein consisted these 
discoveries ? They covered a large field and whole 
range of knowledge. They had reference more par- 
ticularly to vocal sounds. These, in fact, had almost 
exclusively occupied my mind for many years, These 
apparently simple factors, vocal sounds, I have since 
ascertained are the outcome of laws, forces, and 
agencies, and combinations of all these, which largely 
make up the sum and substance of our spiritual exist- 
ence. The direct nature of vocal sounds, therefore, 
cannot be well treated upon till some understanding 
has been arrived at of the nature of the elements out 
of which they are composed. I was rash enough to 
attempt to explain them, especially the consonant 
sounds, in this little book of mine, from a standpoint 
I had then arrived at. Others have tried to explain 
them from a much narrower standpoint still. From 
that standpoint I offered explanations as to our mode 
of speaking, breathing, as to defective speech, etc. 
Although this was an advanced standpoint, and 
well worthy the consideration of scientists, it was a 
standpoint far beneath the one I have arrived at 
since. 

In attempting to scale a mountain I had reached 
a point from which I could overlook the valley im- 



40 Duality of Voice 

mediately beneath my feet. I have since gone up 
much higher. Yet there are towering heights still 
above me which I shall never be able to reach. 
From this it will be seen how difficult it would be 
for me to state in a few paragraphs what I had actu- 
ally ascertained. That book, however, will increase 
in value in the course of time, not only for the 
knowledge it contains, but historically, so to say, as 
the beginning of an evolution which, it seems to me, 
will eventually embrace all sciences in regard to 
man; when treated, as they will be, from a stand- 
point of inner as against one of outer conscious- 
ness, from the standpoint of the soul and the heart, 
as in the inadequacy of our expressions I have to 
call them, as against that of the head and the 
senses. 

I have since arrived at a plan according to which 
these matters will be treated in a more systematic 
manner. In this volume, besides many novel sub- 
jects, I have been enlarging upon and elucidating 
many superficially mentioned in my book, The Basic 
Law of Vocal Utterance. Still, the matters treated 
upon even in this book cover so much ground, and 
had to be condensed to such an extent, that many of 
these also will require further enlargement and eluci- 
dation. This will be attempted to be done in future 
publications. Meantime I trust these matters will 
be taken in hand by others, who by their writings 
will relieve me of some of this additional labor. 
Take it all in all, there is so much of this work that 
I feel as if I had swallowed the ocean and was now 
called upon to give an account of its contents, 



Voice of the (Esophagus 4 1 

THE VOICE OF THE (ESOPHAGUS AND ITS VOCAL 

CORDS 

Among the discoveries mentioned in my former 
publication one stands out most prominent, and it 
is the basis of all my other discoveries; namely, 
" that the voice is of a dual nature/ ' I had ascer- 
tained that sounds circulate around the radix of the 
tongue; that they, or rather the air wave which 
carries them, enters either at the upper surface of 
the tip of the tongue and recedes back, to come out 
again from beneath its lower surface, or vice versa. 
I had also ascertained that the former process is the 
English, the latter the German, for breathing and 
vocal expression. 

I was convinced that this signified a circulation of 
vocal sounds ; and though I had finally also reached 
this conclusion and intimated it, namely, " that we 
breathe and speak through the oesophagus/ ' I did 
not express it in so many words, as I meant to leave 
this expression for a future publication. I was at 
first under the impression that both waves belonged 
to the trachea, the one that was ingoing as well as 
the one which was outgoing. 

Meantime I had discovered the " larynx or voice- 
box to the oesophagus/ ' but considered this at first 
also as belonging to the trachea. I thought inspira- 
tion and ingoing sounds belonged to the vocal cords 
of the trachea, expiration and outgoing sounds to 
this " new " vocal cord located beneath the tongue. 
To study these first attempts, by which I was trying 
to find my way, and which culminated in these won- 
derful discoveries, I presume would be of interest to 



42 Duality of Voice 

the student. I can here mention only the main 
points. 

I have found beyond a doubt, and my future 
statements will more fully establish this fact, that 
the frsenum linguae and the parts of the mucous 
membrane surrounding the same are relatively of 
the same nature in regard to the voice of the oesoph- 
agus that the vocal cords and other parts of the 
larynx are in relation to that of the trachea. 

In contradistinction to the larynx, I named these 
entire surroundings the " replica/ ' as, in conjunc- 
tion with the tip of the tongue resting upon the 
same, they conform to the shape of the oral cavity, 
of which in their general appearance they are almost 
a counterpart. In a similar manner I named the 
special part thereof, which " regulates " the intona- 
tion, the " vocal lip," in contradistinction to the 
vocal cords of the larynx, which perform the same 
service for the voice of the trachea. 

After making such positive assertions regarding 
the replica as I did in my previous publication — now 
more than four years ago — I was more than surprised 
that no one should have deemed it worth his while 
to look into the value of these assertions. If any 
one had, he could not have helped but acknowledge 
their correctness. It is but necessary to utter any 
vocal sound whatsoever, either vowel or consonant, 
and while doing so watch the vocal lip and the frae- 
num, to become at once convinced that their motions 
are of precisely the same order as those of the larynx 
and the vocal cords. 

So many have spent year after year upon the diffi- 



Voice of the CEsophagus 43 

cult and " fruitless M endeavor to study the motions 
of the larynx; while here is an opportunity plainly 
before every one's eyes to study, without effort, the 
most interesting phenomena in voice production. 
We must be obliged to seek for a thing high and low 
before we deem it worthy of our attention. 




^^vLaA ^ij^-^. CsTjsL 




MS3S 


iA^fffP^ 


K' a v ; 






m 




Wmm%W 


pllfil 


SJj&sj&jk. 



THE HUMAN VOICE 

WHAT is the voice — a spirit, or "an expiratory 
current of air set into vibration by purely 
physical agencies " ? It does not seem to me to be 
either, but something which is of the nature of both : 
our dual nature, embodied in the sounds of speech; 
our body and soul joining hands to produce the mira- 
cle of the voice. Regarding the materialistic view 
quoted above, which is held by most of the investi- 
gators, who make the larynx their point d' appui, I 
think that if there is anything in our composition 
or emanating therefrom that is not produced by 
"purely physical agencies/' it is the voice. 

In my opinion there is nothing purer, more 
" spiritual/' in the world than a beautiful voice. 
Did you ever see a spirit ? Perhaps not. But you 
have often heard one. You hear them daily, 
hourly, constantly ; other spirits as well as your 
own — the spirits represented by the voice ; the 
soul incorporated in the sounds of speech. When 
you converse, it is soul to soul; when you hear an 
anthem sung, it is the soul of the singer to the soul 
of the universe. The soul reveals itself most prom- 
inently through the voice when there is anguish in 
it, or joy; tears or laughter; love or hate. 

44 



The Human Voice 45 

An attempt to get at the truth in matters of the 
voice is an attempt at getting at the truth in matters 
of life. If you will tell me all that a vocal sound 
is, I will tell you what your soul is. 

To examine into the anatomical construction of 
the larynx, to watch it physiologically and learn to 
understand the motions of the vocal cords in their 
relation to vocal sounds, is not much more than look- 
ing at the dial of a clock (a simile already used, but 
worth repeating). The movements of the hands will 
give you no cue to the construction of the intricate 
works hidden behind the face of the clock. Nor 
will the careful examination and observation of the 

dials " which serve the voice of the oesophagus in 
the same manner as those of the larynx serve the 
voice of the trachea, measurably increase the know- 
ledge of vocal phenomena. I do believe, however, 
that, inasmuch as the movements of the replica, the 
fraenum, and the vocal lip fit into and complement 
those of the larynx and its vocal cords, and vice 
versa, lessons of great benefit to the knowledge and 
the improvement of vocal utterance may be learned, 
after we have once begun to understand what these 
movements imply. 

That we cannot now derive any benefit from the 
observation of these motions is due to the fact that 
they are reflex, involuntary, uncontrolled and un- 
controllable by the will. Or, as Mme. D'Arona 
expresses it : 

[ They are not the cause of the perfect tone, but 
are simply acted upon by the cause." 

After having become acquainted with the cause of 



46 Duality of Voice 

these motions, and having learned to control it in 
the interest of pure and perfect tone, the movements 
of the larynx and the replica will become of value 
to us as " indicators" of the correct or incorrect 
exercise of the cause which they reflect. In " re- 
cording " the original movements they will show us 
what is right or wrong in the latter, and will thus 
offer us an opportunity for correcting them. Up to 
the present they have been simply barometers, 
which, no matter how closely we may observe them, 
offer us no opportunity for changing " the state of 
the weather" which they indicate. After thor- 
oughly comprehending the causes, however, which 
move them, we may shape the course of the latter 
in conformity with our will. Or, vice versa, we 
may shape our will, which, after all, is the first 
cause, so as to correct that which they indicate to 
be wrong in our tone production. 

Now, what is that which the will acts upon, and 
thus becomes the original source, the first cause, so 
to say, of tone production ? My answer will be a 
surprise, for, as far as I know, no one has ever as 
much as thought, even, of looking in this direction 
for the seat of the voice. 

The original source of tone production has its 
location in various vessels of the viscera : in the 
lungs, the kidneys, and the bladder, for the most 
part, though many other vessels, if not all, par- 
ticipate, and are more or less involved in its pro- 
duction. Besides these vessels, the heart and the 
solar plexus, as central organs of the vascular and 
nervous systems, together with the brain as the 



The Human Voice 47 

central seat of thought and the will, perform parts 
of the highest importance in tone production and 
vocal utterance. In the lungs, the bladder, and the 
kidneys, together with their coadjutors, the bronchi 
and ureters, the tone originates. Here we can con- 
trol, and unconsciously do control, it. 

I shall adduce indubitable proof as to the correct- 
ness of these assertions. More than that, I shall locate 
sounds in these various vessels. As atone proceeds 
from a given string located in a given part of a 
musical instrument, and cannot proceed from or be 
produced on any other string, a given tone of the 
human voice proceeds from a given vessel, and 
cannot proceed from or be produced in any other 
vessel. 

I shall furthermore show that the various shades 
of a tone proceed from various parts of such vessel. 
Yet, while tones are produced in special parts, the 
instrument of the voice being of a sympathetic 
nature, all parts of the viscera participate therein, 
by, in a manner, leaning towards a vessel in which 
a tone is produced, thus assisting in giving it utter- 
ance. If a sound is produced in one of the vessels 
of the abdomen, those of the thorax, though not 
directly participating therein, give it aid and com- 
fort by their passivity, thus throwing the entire 
strength of the voice-producing forces into this one 
spot. If a sound is produced in the thorax, the 
vessels of the abdomen aid it in a similar manner. 
This is more particularly the case when a sound of 
a superior order is to be produced, which is thus 
reinforced by this aid. 



48 Duality of Voice 

In matters of the voice, as in many others, truth 
is stranger than fiction. 

Dr. Rush has said : 
Some day, when the real instrument of the 
voice will be discovered, it will be found to be of an 
order far different in its nature and construction from 
that which it has ever been supposed to be. *' 

The greatest mechanical wonder, however, is that 
the voice, and that which is apparently one and the 
same sound, should under different circumstances 
emanate from sources so entirely different in their 
construction as the vocal cords to the trachea and 
those to the oesophagus, the viscera of the kid- 
neys, the bladder and the lungs, etc. This fact 
also accounts for the mystery which, like an im- 
penetrable veil, has hung over the features of the 
voice. Who has ever thought of looking for the 
spirit of the voice to reveal itself from beneath the 
tongue ? Who has ever thought that the oesophagus 
was a breathing-tube of a similar functional -order as 
the trachea ? Who has thought that the viscera of 
the abdomen were playing as important a part in 
breathing as the lungs ? Who has thought that the 
hemisphere of the abdomen was as directly amen- 
able to the influence of the air as that of the thorax ? 
Who has, in fine, thought that the viscera of the 
abdomen together with those of the thorax were 
primarily instrumental in producing the voice and 
vocal utterance? 

It may not be pleasant to know, and it may not 
quite conform with our aesthetic taste, that the " voice 
divine " should have its origin in such vessels as the 



The Human Voice 49 

kidneys and the bladder; but I have no quarrel with 
the Creator, and can but wonder, as I have never 
ceased to wonder from step to step in all these in- 
vestigations, at the marvellous resources of nature. 
There is one great lesson conveyed through this, 
namely, — that the body is divine in its every aspect ; 
parts which have been supposed to serve ends only 
of a comparatively low order participating in the 
highest spiritual functions. 

This knowledge is the sanctification of the ' ' flesh, ' ' 
so constantly and unjustifiably rejected and reviled 
as against that of the spirit. I am not dealing with 
theories, but am stating facts which will be as posi- 
tively proven as any other scientific facts ever have 
been proven. These proofs will not be all forth- 
coming in this book, however, there being other 
subjects of equal, if not greater, importance that I 
have to deal with before I can reach them ; these 
subjects being of such a nature that they must be 
explained before those immediately connected with 
voice production can be properly dealt with. 

I have been reproached with attempting too much ; 
with dealing with too many subjects at one and the 
same time; that I ought to complete one theme and 
then take hold of another. Just so ; but this cannot 
be done. I must first deal with general principles. 
Our entire system being of a homogeneous nature, 
I cannot deal with separate issues until these prin- 
ciples have been dealt with and understood in their 
entirety. Besides, I cannot hope to ever complete 
any one thing. I shall be well satisfied if I shall be 
able to simply touch upon every subject that has 



5° Duality of Voice 

come under my observation, lightly, suggesting 
things, and leaving it to others to enter more thor- 
oughly into the same. 

INTROSPECTION 

With our mortal eyes turned outwardly we can- 
not see spiritual things, nor the motive power of life, 
nor the material form the spirit assumes in mov- 
ing the mechanism of the body. For there is a 
material way in which it is thus moved, as there 
necessarily must be, and I have obtained glimpses 
thereat by turning my eyes inwardly — by looking 
into myself with the inner surface of my eyes. 

Yet through all these centuries people have been 
using that portion of their eyes which is intended 
for external vision only, in a vain endeavor to arrive 
at spiritual-material facts. Thus the larynx, as the 
supposed seat of the voice, has been subjected to 
scrutiny based upon laws derived from phenomena 
which owe their origin to physical causes only. 
During this vain endeavor the larynx has been sub- 
jected to torture and maltreatment worse than that 
inflicted upon a mediaeval witch. 

But its tormentors have derived no solace from 
this treatment, not even that of a confession of im- 
aginary sins. Why not ? Simply because it had 
not anything to confess, being a reflex, an indirect, 
and not a free and original agent. Through tor- 
ture (by means of the laryngoscope), the destroyer 
of harmony, we cannot arrive at laws based upon 
harmony. 

Is not all physiological research more or less of 



Introspection 51 

this order ? The " higher law " of science may de- 
mand its victims, even as did the " higher law " of 
the church. I do not wish to say, however, that the 
sacrifice of animals on the altar of science is as use- 
less as that of human beings used to be on that of 
religion. Vivisection, however, while it may, and 
no doubt sometimes does, help to recognize the 
physical cause of disorder, will never be of any value 
in arriving at spiritual causes and the recognition of 
the inner motive power of life, nor to any great ex- 
tent at that of the exercise of our faculties and func- 
tions. For this knowledge we require a different 
mode of proceeding. To penetrate into the realm 
of the spiritual-material world (and all phenomena of 
life are of that nature) we must not look externally 
but internally, not into other beings but into our- 
selves. That is the only place where we can hope 
to find it in action and arrive at the causes of such 
action. 

As our being cannot enter into the inner life of 
another being and identify itself with the same or 
become apart thereof, or remain apart and become a 
spectator of the same or substitute therefor (not even 
for that of the simplest and lowest living vegetable 
or animal organism), we would have to despair of 
our ability of ever being able to arrive at the laws 
governing life, if we were not able to look into our 
own lives by substituting for our observations our 
inner for our outer consciousness. 

The word " Introspection " has heretofore meant 
reflection upon purely spiritual phenomena only; I 
have proven by my personal example that we can 



52 Duality of Voice 

observe physiologico-psychological phenomena with 
considerable accuracy — very little of this kind of 
work, as far as I can learn, ever having been done 
before. The nearest approach at amalgamation, 
probably, is that which is brought about by means 
of hypnotism. In this instance the two factors, the 
positive and the negative, the operator and the per- 
son operated upon, do not fuse, however, and become 
one, but remain entities, each in his own right. Or, 
to speak still more to the point, while the positive, 
that is the spiritual, factor of the operator may, and 
no doubt does, join hands with the negative, that is 
the material, of his subject, by which the operator 
becomes one with the latter, there is still but an 
influence, and not an insight. Besides, this condition 
is as yet too obscurely known to be made use of as a 
practical means of observation. 

After all this, the question will still be asked, 
" What must we do to look into ourselves ?' 

I will admit that I have not stated what others 
should do, but in explaining what I have done I 
mean to explain what general course others will 
have to pursue. By taking into consideration what 
I have said, and adding thereto what I shall still 
have to say, a general idea may be formed of what 
the reader must do to place himself in a position to 
make original observations by means of introspec- 
tion. No two cases being just alike, from the fact 
that heredity, the mental capacity, physical condi- 
tion, education, temperament, nationality, etc., with 
no two persons are just alike, it is not well possible 
to point out a course quite suitable to all. I might as 



Introspection 53 

well attempt to arrive at a law by the observance of 
which all persons would be enabled to write poetry. 

Still, needing assistance in this vast undertaking, 
I am particularly anxious to make this matter clear, 
as the results of these observations are of vital in- 
terest to all, and I am but one weak, ignorant mor- 
tal creature, with but a small fraction of a life 
left to me in which to state that which it would 
at least take a full lifetime to properly and fully ex- 
plain. I am overburdened with an insight which is 
being increased daily, even against my will, and 
which I shall never be able to fully communicate to 
others. Let the flood-gates of truth once be opened 
and come in upon you as they have upon me, and 
you will be overwhelmed by the mass of their detail 
no less than by the vigor of their mass. My great 
want, therefore, for the purpose of more fully arriv- 
ing at these facts and obtaining ever higher results 
is assistance and cooperation. I wish it to be dis- 
tinctly understood, however, that I do not mean this 
in a personal sense — far from it ; but in the interest 
and the promotion of science, as everybody wanting 
to make original observations must pursue these 
studies for himself and by himself. 

Why such a course has not been heretofore pur- 
sued by others I am at a loss to understand, except 
from the fact that it takes an unusual amount of 
perseverance to reach the first results. Though all 
persons may not be able to personally obtain satis- 
factory results, all may be benefited by the results 
obtained by those qualified to successfully carry on 
a course of observations by means of introspection. 



54 Duality of Voice 

The world at large will always have to be satisfied 
with being simply the beneficiary of scientific re- 
search ; more especially of research in matters spirit- 
ual or psychical. From facts thus obtained rules 
may be deduced, which, translated into " physical 
forms," may become the property of all. In this 
manner numerous observations I have made have 
already assumed a practical shape ; but I have not 
as yet been able to devote the necessary time to 
them to produce a system which may be used for 
general instruction. 

Meanwhile I do sincerely hope that others will take 
hold of these matters in all seriousness, and assist 
me in arriving at these practical physical forms, which 
I trust, in fact know beyond the shadow of a doubt, 
will be fruitful of the most beneficent results in the 
teaching of the deaf, of singing and elocution, of pure 
vocal utterance in speaking; in curing stammering 
and other chronic faulty or deficient utterance ; be- 
sides numerous other matters of equal importance 
not in immediate connection with vocal utterance. 

That these matters must be and are of the great- 
est importance to the medical student goes without 
saying. It is to be hoped that they may lead to 
a more rational treatment of our frail and often 
ailing bodies. I say " bodies' because this is the 
common phrase. Yet how false this is, every true 
physician is but too conscious of. Our ailments 
cannot be successfully treated from a mere physical 
standpoint. The question of life is not a mechani- 
cal one; it is spiritual beyond anything else, the 
spirit being the motive power giving life to the 



Making Parts Rigid 55 

otherwise inert physical body. Yet the only en- 
deavor of the physician has always been to cure 
the " machine," to set its mechanism right again 
when it is out of order, simply because he has not 
been able to get at the spiritual motive power which 
propels it. 

I have been trying to get at this motive power, 
and to some extent have been successful in so doing. 
Besides, the body never suffers. Its ailments make 
the soul suffer; while the ailments of the soul have 
a comparatively less injurious effect upon the body. 
The body is the habitation of the soul. The soul 
dwells in its every part. As long as this habitation 
is habitable the soul continues to dwell therein. 
When it becomes uninhabitable the soul departs, 
never to return. Hence a body, never so frail and 
ailing, will continue to live as long as a vital part is 
not affected, that is, a part the soul requires for its 
habitation and cannot do without. Close such part 
to the indwelling of the soul, prevent material and 
spiritual factors from joining hands therein, and the 
spirit departs. Once departed it can never be made 
to return. Hence a body in the full vigor of health, 
after having been immersed in water sufficiently 
long to have any one vital avenue positively closed 
against the indwelling of the soul, cannot be resusci- 
tated. As long as the soul clings to it, however, 
with never so feeble a grasp, it may come to life 
again, in the same manner that a flame nearly ex- 
tinguished may be fanned to life again. 

For me to fully describe my mode of proceeding 
in arriving at these matters would be equal to an 



56 Duality of Voice 

attempt at crowding into a few paragraphs all I 
have gone through within something like forty 
years, more or less, of observation. 

MAKING PARTS RIGID 

I have already stated that I was originally led into 
making these investigations through my simple de- 
sire of getting rid of my German mode of expression 
in speaking the English language. Being deter- 
mined to find out where the trouble was which pre- 
vented me from producing pure English sounds 
while I experienced no difficulty in producing pure 
German sounds, I pursued vocal sounds, through 
numerous phases, to their original sources. The 
endeavor to arrive at the true nature of vocal sounds 
through autology and by means of " introspection ' 
has, no doubt, been made by thousands before me. 
The reason they were not more successful must be 
attributed to the simple fact that such persons have 
been lacking in perseverance. It is one of the most 
misleading endeavors one can pursue. 

In the beginning I came to what I considered a 
positive result perhaps for the hundredth time, but 
to think I was on the wrong track the one hundred 
and first time. I would then, perhaps, finally deter- 
mine that the first result arrived at, after all, was the 
correct one. In this manner I have in the course 
of time arrived at positive conclusions, which have 
been the basis of all my investigations, and are un- 
doubtedly correct, as they have yielded up one result 
after another and have never proven false. For this, 
relatively speaking, " perfect insight " I have waited, 



Making Parts Rigid 57 

before saying anything more at all, since my previous 
(preliminary) publication. To these conclusions I 
owe my present trust and confidence, and the ' ' bold- 
ness and temerity, ' ' as some may say, in making such 
* startling declarations " in the face of the accumu- 
lated wisdom of the science of this and of past ages. 
Yet I am tired unto death of prevarication and of 
time-serving, and will say what I consider to be the 
truth, no matter what may be the consequence. 

Any one singing a false note or mispronouncing 
a foreign word or sound, yet knowing what the 
right note, word, or sound is and should be, can do 
the same thing, and by perseverance finally find 
what he has been looking for and pronounce such 
note, word, or sound in its entire purity. This will 
put him on the track to the production of all pure 
notes or sounds. To accomplish this, he must 
persistently watch one result after another. 

My mode of proceeding has been largely in mak- 
ing parts rigid, and then observing the consequences. 
In pursuing this course for some time, you will finally 
attain such a mastery therein that you will be able 
to make almost any vessel, muscle, sinew, mem- 
brane, tissue, etc., or any part thereof, rigid. This 
is done for the purpose of neutralizing parts which 
partake in the production of sounds, and will enable 
you to closely watch cause and effect in your natural, 
as well as artistic, course of breathing and sound 
production. Having two languages at my command, 
I was startled to find that cause and effect in both were 
totally different from each other. This gave me the 
original cue to all my observations. 



5 8 Duality of Voice 

In place of sounds, others may pursue odor, taste, 
feeling, motion, hearing, etc., to their original 
sources, and make similar observations. In so 
doing they will find that all phe7iomena, the products 
of our faculties ', abilities, or gifts, originally proceed 
from the same or similar sources ; that there is a 
homogeneity of proceeding, mainly consisting in various 
modes of breathing, in the production of them all ; the 
end organs of our senses or gifts finally determining 
definite special results. 

For vocal utterance, we draw our inspiration for 
various results to be attained, from the air, and 
breathe in a different mode for every special per- 
formance. These modes of breathing, though the 
same for all persons in a general sense and leading 
through the same channels, in a more restricted 
sense are different for every nationality. 

There is no " danger " connected with these pur- 
suits, in spite of Mr. Heidenhain's fears ; which fact is 
due to the duality of the nature of each and all our 
various faculties, there being a safety-valve always at 
the other end in the shape of the negative factor. 
The only danger I have discovered was in connec- 
tion with the " streams of life," which do not per- 
mit tampering with without penalty. As these 
exist independent of our ordinary mode of breath- 
ing, they are not apt to be interfered with by any 
neophyte in the pursuits now under consideration. 
Of these powerful streams, of which no notice has 
ever been taken by any one, though ceaselessly 
streaming into and out of our system while life 
lasts, I shall take occasion to speak later on. 



Extirpation 59 

EXTIRPATION 

To make a part " rigid M is equal to the " extirpa- 
tion " of such part. While it is in a state of rigid- 
ity, it ceases to take part in any action whatsoever ; 
it is inert and the same as if it had ceased to exist. 
What advantage, then, let me ask, is there in extir- 
pating parts in animals, when we can, by making 
parts rigid, directly extirpate such parts in ourselves ? 
We can in this manner suppress the action of any 
muscle, or the participation of any vessel, or part of 
such vessel, in any act, by the simple exercise of our 
volition. I find no difficulty in thus " extirpating " 
any such part from myself for the time being, and 
then observing the consequences. I can take hold 
of the innermost part of myself, so to say, and take 
it out of myself . In regard to vocal utterance, these 
consequences are positive and direct. That these 
operations must be very carefully conducted in con- 
nection with vital parts goes without saying. The 
action of muscles participating in the production of 
vocal utterance, however, or in the act of breathing, 
except the muscles of the heart, can be suppressed 
without danger. I am thus in a position to modify 
extirpation of parts to any extent, almost, I desire. 
I can add to and detract therefrom at will, and can 
shift the act of extirpation from the anterior part of 
a vessel to its posterior, or from its superior to its 
inferior, or vice versa, now making one side rigid, 
then the other, now one end, and then the other; or 
take hold of its centre and leave the other parts free, 
or suppress its circumference and leave the centre 



60 Duality of Voice 

free. There is scarcely a limit to the action of my 
will in handling my subject. All this while, my 
feelings, my intelligence, my mind, take in every 
phase of these proceedings, and enable me to give 
a correct account of the results I have been ob- 
serving. 

This discovery — for a discovery it must be, as I 
can find no account of any similar proceeding ever 
having been carried on — should, and I hope will, 
put an end to vivisection, when it is resorted to for 
the purpose of learning anything whatever in respect 
to the action and the process of life. By this pro- 
ceeding I have more or less successfully observed 
the acts of breathing, of vocal utterance, motion 
and locomotion, hearing, seeing, and thinking. 

I beg leave to here insert without comment the 
following clipping from the press: 

The following extracts are from a lecture on " Vivi- 
section in Relation to Medical Science," delivered by 
Edward Berdoe, M. R. C. S., etc., at Cambridge. Lovers 
of animals may be glad to know how the medical fra- 
ternity amuse themselves : 

" You may open the abdomens of living cats, guinea- 
pigs, and rabbits, and apply irritating chemicals to their 
exposed intestines, causing what you are pleased to term 
6 peculiar rhythmic movements ' and i circus movements/ 
but what the unlearned would call violent spasms and 
convulsions, as was done by Dr. Batten and Mr. Boken- 
ham, at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, last year. You may 
dissect out the kidneys of living dogs and cats which 
you have first paralyzed by curare — the ' hellish oorali ' 
of Lord Tennyson's poem, so called because the animal's 



Movements of the Tongue 61 

sufferings are intensified by its use, and it is unable to 
move a limb, or to bite, scratch, howl, or otherwise inter- 
fere with the operator's comfort. You may do this, as 
was done by Dr. John Rose Bradford, at University Col- 
lege, London. You may infect ninety cats with cholera 
poison, and bake numbers of them alive, as did Dr. 
Lauder Brunton. You may inoculate the eyes of rabbits 
and guinea-pigs with the material of tubercle, fix glass 
balls filled with croton oil — a horribly irritating drug — 
and stitch them into the muscles of the backs of rabbits, 
then crush them amongst their tissues, as did Dr. Watson 
Cheyne, at King's College, London. You may slice, 
plough, burn, and pick away the brains of monkeys and 
dogs, as did Dr. Ferrier. You may slowly starve to death 
animals whose vagi nerves have been cut and stimulated 
by electricity, as was done by Dr. Gaskell, of this Uni- 
versity, in 1878. You may cut out the spleens and livers 
from living rabbits, pigeons, and ducks, as was done by 
Dr. William Hunter, of St. John's College, Cambridge, 
in 1888, or do a thousand other acts which in a coster- 
monger or a farm laborer would be termed and dealt 
with as acts of atrocious cruelty, punishable by imprison- 
ment. But you have not learned the cure for a single 
malady which afflicts the human body." 

THE MOVEMENTS OF THE TONGUE 

There is another mode of proceeding by which 
satisfactory results can be obtained, and which was 
the only one I resorted to in the beginning and for 
many years afterwards ; namely, the watching of the 
movements of the tongue. 

The muscle of the tongue, for vocal utterance, is 
the most important in our organization. It appears 



r~ 



62 Duality of Voice 

to me, in fact, as if in its tip there were a concentration 
of all the threads which control our existence ; and 
that it is, therefore, representative of an epitome of 
our entire being. As all sciences, in a general, though 
in some instances perhaps somewhat remote, sense, 
centre in the science of life, so do the controlling 
elements in our composition centre in the tip of the 
tongue. If it were possible to analyze it spiritually 
as well as physically, we would obtain a compendium 
of knowledge far in advance of any there is in exist- 
ence in the world at the present time. Still, it must 
be admitted that this would, to some extent, depend 
upon whose tongue's tip was submitted to such 
analyzation. The fact of the tip of the tongue 
being removed by surgical operation without serious 
effect upon the mental condition of the individual 
does not greatly affect my assertion. In that case 
the concentration must have taken place at the 
tongue's new tip or end. 

The tongue's tip, with as infallible correctness as 
the magnetic needle points towards the north pole, 
indicates the exact spot whence sounds come, or 
should come, to appear on the surface in a clear and 
undefiled manner. The tongue's tip, for English 
vowel sounds, does not touch any part of the oral 
cavity. It is constantly changing its position, how- 
ever, and for every vowel sound, or shade of a vowel 
sound, points in the direction of ox approaches the spot 
whence a sound comes, or should come. To ascer- 
tain such spot with exactitude, it is but necessary to 
extend the tongue's tip until it reaches the wall of 
the oral cavity during or, still better, immediately 



Movements of the Tongue 63 

after the utterance of a vocal sound. Upon reach- 
ing that spot the tongue may continue in the same 
position of contact and the sound can still be uttered 
with entire purity. Change this point of contact, 
however, but in the least, and such sound will at 
once cease to come to the surface. Yet, while ap- 
parently a sound comes from the direction in which 
the tip of the tongue points, this is not really the 
case. In pointing in a given direction, the tongue 
opens up the channels of the oesophagus and the 
trachea in a special manner for the proper emission of 
a given sound, beneath as well as above, and to the 
left as well as to the right of its radix. In changing 
the tongue's position but in the least, these channels 
will open in a different direction, which may then 
be the proper medium for the emission of another 
sound, but not for the one under consideration. 

The general mode in which the radix of the tongue 
turns upon its axis is the direct and fundamental 
cause productive of the various languages of the 
world ; such general mode necessitating special move- 
ments of the tongue for the production of the sounds 
of any special language. Regarding the proper emis- 
sion of consonant sounds every one knows that the 
same depends upon the particular spot of contact of 
the tongue's tip with parts of the oral cavity. As 
a matter of fact, such point of contact also opens, 
the same as with vowel sounds, the tubes of the 
trachea and oesophagus at the tongue's radix in the 
proper manner for the emission of a given stream of 
air for the production of such consonant sounds. 

Every imaginable opprobrious epithet has been by 



64 Duality of Voice 

singers bestowed upon the tongue. " This obstrep- 
erous muscle which is always in the way," says one. 
" This troublesome member will persist in going up 
when you want it to remain down " ; " intractable," 

contrary," " obstinate," "wilful," "' ungovern- 
able," " stubborn." All these expressions have 
been used by writers on the voice in connection with 
the tongue, simply because it would not yield to 
unreasonable and unnatural demands made upon it; 
the tongue, being a free agent, persisting in its 
natural rights — as much so as any independent dem- 
ocratic citizen persists in his. 

My observations having been made in connection 
with a foreign language, I had a better opportunity 
for watching my tongue's movements than I would 
have had had I attempted to watch them in connec- 
tion with my native tongue; the movements of the 
tongue in connection with the latter being so rapid 
and involuntary that it becomes exceedingly difficult 
to make any observations at all. It was like having 
this foreign (English) tongue exist independently 
alongside of my own, my intelligence watching it, 
and guiding it, now here, now there, until it would 
touch the right spot for the right English sound. 
Knowing what the right sound was and should be, 
I never stopped until the same came to the surface. 

In trying to find my way in this foreign (English) 
territory of the oral cavity, I might compare my 
English tongue to the stick in the hands of a blind 
man, who uses it in place of his eyes to ascertain his 
whereabouts, so as to enable him to proceed on his 
way in the right direction. With my " stick*' I 



Movements of the Tongue 65 

felt in every direction, till I found I could steer clear 
of obstacles straight into the channel of the sound I 
had been seeking. From my German post of ob- 
servation I was thus enabled to watch the move- 
ments of my English tongue in its efforts to find 
itself " at home " in this foreign territory, while I 
was at the same time guiding it from one point 
therein to another. 

I want to call especial attention to and reiterate 
the fact that the exact point whence a sound pro- 
ceeds, or seems to proceed, can, by extending the 
tongue's tip, be quite as well (if not better) as- 
certained, after the utterance of a sound, as during 
such utterance ; that is immediately after the tongue 
has ceased to vibrate for such sound. 

The difference in the movements of the tongue 
for various languages is one of the most interesting 
observations to be made in connection with these 
studies. The German language being the exact 
opposite, the antipode, to the English, after com- 
prehending the movements of the tongue for the 
latter, its own movements, that is, the movements 
of the tongue for German sounds, were not difficult 
for me to ascertain. 

It is an anomaly to apply the works of German 
writers on the voice to the study of the English lan- 
guage, or to that of any other than the German 
language ; or to apply books written from an English 
standpoint to the study of any language except the 
English — the movements of the tongue, and, in sym- 
pathy therewith, of countless other muscles, being 
different for every language. 



66 Duality of Voice 

Whatever the movements of the tongue are for 
the spoken language, they are of an inverse order for 
song. I anticipate in making the following state- 
ment, namely, that while speech is of an order which 
is rapid, direct, anterior, exterior, spontaneous, im- 
pulsive, and material, song is of an order which is 
slow, indirect, posterior, interior, premeditated, con- 
templative, and spiritual. I will also add this : that, 
while speech is of the oral cavity, song is of the 
pharynx. In making these remarks and others in 
anticipation, I do so intentionally and for a purpose; 
not so much in expectation that they will be at 
once and fully understood, as with a view of setting 
others thinking on these subjects until I can reach 
them in due course of time ; or, if I should never 
be able to reach them, that the principle, at least, 
underlying the same, which if the opportunity had 
been granted me would have been fully sustained, 
shall not be lost. The reader will notice that I am 
hurrying over the ground as rapidly as I consistently 
can, even from my — under the best of circumstances 
— superficial standpoint, leaving wide gaps to be 
filled in by others in the course of time. 

SIMPLE SOUNDS 

Speaking of sounds in making experiments in 
connection with the movements of the tongue, it is 
of the first importance that these sounds should be 
simple and not vocal or compound. They must be 
sounds of the same order as we utter in whispering, 
or such sounds as we are apt to use when learning to 
speak a foreign tongue. They are the inharmonious 



Simple Sounds 67 

sounds of the deaf, and those which distinguish the 
speech of a foreigner from that of the native-born. 

The recognition of these sounds as the negative 
parts of speech has been one of my main accomplish- 
ments, and has been of the greatest assistance to me 
in my investigations. 

Things complete tell no tales. We must decom- 
pose them, reduce them to their elements, if we want 
to arrive at the truth in matters of science. I have 
succeeded in doing with things spiritual — vocal 
sounds — what the chemist is doing with things ma- 
terial. In things complete, as they are shaped by 
the hand of nature, the elements of which they are 
composed are mingled in such a dexterous manner, 
are so happily blended, that they adjust, counter- 
poise, and complement one another, and thus live 
with and in one another. 

These new forms have been created by the ele- 
ments of which they are composed, abandoning their 
separate original forms and now appearing in a new 
form, as integral parts of an harmonious entity. 
These elements have not only abandoned their form, 
however, but in most instances have also changed 
their character; which in their original composition 
may have been of a discordant, violent, and even dan- 
gerous nature. Take but the atmospheric air and 
its elements for an example. 

A similar state of affairs exists in connection with 
the phenomena of the material-spiritual world. 
While vocal sounds, when properly produced, stand 
for all that is harmonious and pleasing, their com- 
ponent parts, their positive and negative elements, 



68 Duality of Voice 

by themselves, offer features of a contrary nature. 
They also offer us, the same as elements do to the 
chemist while making experiments, the opportu- 
nity for making an endless number of combinations. 
Unless you know what simple sounds — u e.> nega- 
tive parts of vocal sounds — are, and know how to 
produce them, you will scarcely be able to make 
one class of experiments which I shall offer in great 
abundance to sustain my arguments. 

When I shall reach the subject of vocal sounds 
proper, I shall more fully explain their exact nature. 
I will simply say this at present : A simple sound 
is the product of that hemisphere only to which it 
properly belongs. A vocal sound is aided and 
assisted by a complementary sound from the other 
hemisphere. The more perfect such aid, the more 
perfect will be its tone. Simple vowel sounds are 
short, abrupt, the same as consonant sounds when 
produced all by themselves and without the aid of a 
vowel sound uttered in conjunction with them. 

POSTERIOR SURFACES 

In saying, as I have, that introspection is carried 
on by looking into ourselves with the inner surface 
of our eyes, I meant to say, in the first instance, that 
we must exclude all exterior vision, and then at- 
tempt to locate and follow up the course of events 
going on within us. While in this state we are 
strictly reduced to our personal and individual 
existence. In thus " watching/' the function of 
our eyes, instead of being used for external material 



Posterior Surfaces 69 

observation, is reversed ; their function now being to 
observe internally and spiritually. 

In connection with sounds, you will not only " in 
your mind's eye " see the places where they origin- 
ate, and feel the course they are taking, but you 
will actually, functionally (in the mode of spiritually 
seeing and feeling), " see " and " feel " them. This 
vision and this feeling is far from being perfect, 
however, — not being accustomed to thus seeing and 
feeling, — but it may, when continuously exercised, 
become so in the course of time. While in this 
state, besides seeing the places interiorly, you may 
also see them exteriorly, by reflection as it were, 
and in a reverse order, as in a looking-glass/' in 
which case it is still an interior vision reflected 
exteriorly. As a matter of fact, I not only believe, 
but positively know, that every exterior functional 
surface has a corresponding posterior one. 

Whenever a thing is brought home to us, either 
through our organs of seeing, hearing, feeling, 
smelling, or tasting, the outer surface of such re- 
spective organ constitutes the positive factor for 
such action, while its inner surface constitutes the 
negative factor thereof. Whenever the outer world 
is excluded, however, as during thought, introspec- 
tion, and in our sleep, the inner surface of any of 
these organs becomes the positive, and the outer 
surface the negative, factor. In thus saying, " I see 
with the inner surface of my eyes," I do not mean 
this figuratively only, but literally, functionally, as 
well ; as I could not see these places and locate them 
internally nor could I see any subject or object with 



7o Duality of Voice 

"my mind's eye/' if the faculty of seeing were not 
actually given to the posterior surface of the eye. 

This will become clear when you consider that 
you will altogether fail to see internally when you 
attempt to use the anterior surface of your eye for 
the purpose of internal vision. Thus, the phenom- 
ena of vision which accompany thought or dreams, 
during sleep as well as in our waking moments, are 
not merely spiritual, but, in the sense of internal 
functional vision, are also material, so to say. 
All thought, in fact, is more or less of this same 
nature. We use the posterior surfaces of our organs 
of sense more frequently, in consequence, than we 
do their corresponding anterior surfaces. Physi- 
ologists will say there is no such a thing as an inner 
surface of the eye capable of seeing. This does not 
alter the fact that I actually, functionally, see with 
the posterior surface of my eyes, and that everybody 
else does the same thing. 

I shall, in connection with vocal utterance, have 
occasion to call attention to numerous divisions of as 
positive a character as a wall of living tissue, of which 
there is not a trace to be seen by external vision ; these 
divisions being channels, constantly used in one and 
the same direction, some for ingoing, others for out- 
going streams of air and sounds. Of these channels, 
also, being invisible to the outer surface of the eye, 
science has never taken any notice. These invisible 
agencies are connecting links, mediating between 
cause and result, in connection with material-spirit- 
ual or spiritual-material phenomena of whatsoever 
nature brought to our consciousness. Hence the 



Posterior Surfaces 71 

inability of science, in its ignorance of these agen- 
cies, to reconcile the one with the other by the aid 
of such material only as has been heretofore at its 
disposal. We may see proceedings going on which 
are mediating between cause and effect, by the assist- 
ance of the inner surface of our eyes. They disappear 
altogether, as well as any other ' ' vision, ' ' upon an at- 
tempt being made at seeing them with the external 
surface of our eyes. Yet we may see inwardly with 
our eyes open, as we do when absent-minded, etc. 

If we could invent a microscope by the aid of 
which we could look into ourselves in a spiritual 
sense, that is, through posterior surfaces, all the 
secret springs of our nature might be revealed to 
us. This ability to become cognizant of physiologi- 
co-psychological processes by the aid of the inner 
surfaces of our organs of sense, reveals a peculiar 
functional exercise of their faculties. In matters of 
memory they are not intended to aid in conveying 
to our consciousness impressions made at the present \ 
but those made at a previous time. These impres- 
sions having been made on the soft tablets of our 
brain, either during our individual existence or that 
of our progenitors, and transmitted to us by dint of 
heredity, are brought to our consciousness by the 
aid of these inner surfaces, phonographically \ They 
are awakened by association ; and that organ of sense 
by the aid of whose anterior surface they were first 
received and recorded, now reawakens them by the aid 
of its posterior surface. Visions, consequently, are 
reflections made on the inner surface of the eyes, 
from impressions previously made upon the brain, in 



72 Duality of Voice 

a similar manner to that by which sounds come forth 
from a phonograph. They could not assume shape 
if they were not thus reflected. It is owing to the 
nature of these reflections that they are more fleet- 
ing and evanescent than those made by the objects 
themselves upon the external surface of the eyes. 

The anterior and posterior surfaces of all organs, 
by whose aid we exercise our faculties, which sur- 
faces represent their poles and dual factors, the 
positive and the negative, the material and the 
spiritual, change places in conformity with whether 
an object is impressed upon them exteriorly or 
interiorly, in the present or the past, directly or 
indirectly, physically or spiritually. Things which 
are brought to our consciousness from the ex- 
terior world and in a direct manner — through our 
senses — may be said to be of a material nature ; 
while those which come to us indirectly — through 
our inner consciousness — may be said to be of spir- 
itual origin. The clearness of our visions naturally 
depends upon the clearness of the impression still 
remaining upon the tablets of the brain. The 
more stirring the event in the first instance, the 
deeper and more lasting, of course, the impression. 
All this, however, does not throw any light upon 
the process of abstract thought ; nor am I in a posi- 
tion to aid in so doing. Yet it appears to me to be 
a sister proceeding; and that a nearer approach to 
an explanation of those more material phenomena 
may finally assist in arriving at an explanation of 
the causes of these more recondite and apparently 
purely spiritual phenomena. 



Posterior Surfaces 73 

The correctness of the preceding remarks will be- 
come more apparent when we substitute for the 
faculty of seeing, that of hearing. We hear the 
voice of another person through the anterior part of 
our ear, entering, as it does, from without. We hear 
our own voice through the posterior part of our ear, 
going out, as it does, from within. No matter how 
low we may speak, we can always hear our own 
voice, though inaudible to others; and we can still 
distinctly hear it at such time, even when we fail to 
hear a low, though in fact relatively much louder, 
tone proceeding from the voice of another person. 
A ventriloquist, on the other hand, with whom 
these relations are reversed, hears his own voice re- 
flected from without, inwardly, while, if he con- 
tinues in the same condition while listening to 
another person's voice, he will hear the latter from 
within, outwardly. 

For the purpose of testing the correctness of 
these observations, please pay attention to the 
following: In listening to the sounds of another 
person's speech, you will have no difficulty in notic- 
ing that they stream into your ear from without, 
inwardly. Now, substitute for this other person's 
voice the sounds of your own voice, and continue to 
listen to the same in precisely the same manner in 
which you did to those of this other person ; that is, 
let them flow into your ear from without, inwardly. 
The result will be that you will not only not hear the 
sounds of your own voice, but that these sounds them- 
selves will become paralyzed, that you will not be able 
to produce any sound whatever, 



74 Duality of Voice 

The cause is obvious. You attempt to listen to 
negative sounds with the side of your ear still tuned 
negatively; while, ordinarily, when we cease to 
listen and commence to speak, all poles are reversed. 
Spoken sounds are positive in relation to the speaker, 
but negative in relation to the person listening to the 
same. In consequence, the producer hears them 
with the negative (inner) part of his ear, the re- 
ceiver, or listener, hears them with the positive 
(exterior) part of his ear. 

I copy the following from an article in the Phila- 
delphia Sunday Press : 

" A curious fact in regard to the effect of explosions 
upon the drumhead, is that this tissue, though generally 
blown in, is sometimes blown out. Just what causes the 
latter result has not yet been fully explained/' 

In this instance, I presume, the person's ear was 
tuned to listen interiorly, and the effect of the ex- 
plosion, which, in relation to him, was of a negative 
nature, took effect on the positive, the posterior, 
side of his ear. This person was not in expectancy 
of the explosion, but it came on unawares, of a sud- 
den, while he was in a state of contemplation. 

In connection with the eye, our inner conscious- 
ness acts asa n rein " upon the outer, drawing back 
in case of danger, checking our progress when sud- 
denly coming upon a precipice, and regulating our 
steps to circumvent it, but without coming to a stop, 
when seeing an obstacle in our way from a distance. 
The " rein " in such an instance reverses the poles 
of the eyes — the positive becomes negative and the 
negative positive ; that is to say, in our usual mode 



Posterior Surfaces 75 

of seeing, while walking, the exterior surface of the 
eye is positive, the interior negative ; but when there 
is danger ahead and we are warned to be cautious, 
the exterior becomes negative and the interior posi- 
tive ; the activity now being exercised by the latter, 
the passivity by the former. The action of the 
" rein," however, is not direct, but crosswise; that 
is to say, the posterior surface of the left eye is in 
correspondence with the anterior of the right, and 
vice versa, in conformity with the " impulse ' 
emanating from either the one or the other, while 
the anterior surface of the left eye is in correspond- 
ence with the posterior of the right, and vice versa. 

The knowledge of the reversion of the functional 
exercise of our organs of sense is of signal import- 
ance in connection with motion and vocal utterance, 
which always go hand in hand; every utterance be- 
ing accompanied by a motion, though not always 
visible to the eye. In truly artistic delivery these 
motions are brought to the highest perfection; and 
visibly, though often in great moderation, accom- 
pany every inflection of the voice. 

To be able to see a thing at all, we must be 
in a relatively proper position with the object to be 
seen; we must be on the same plane with it. We 
must also have light, not only for the latter, but by 
reflection therefrom also for ourselves. In addition 
we must have the inner light enabling us to com- 
prehend what we have seen. I contend that for 
the study of spiritual-material as well as material- 
spiritual phenomena, such light has always been 
wanting for the thing to be seen, as well as for 



76 Duality of Voice 

the orb to see and consequently for the spirit to 
comprehend. In attempting to comprehend, and 
to explain appearances, physiologically, we have 
been looking in our exterior world, where we 
cannot, in place of our interior world, where we 
might be able to see and to observe. We have 
been using the outer surface of our eye instead of 
the inner, with which to see spiritual things. The 
thing to be seen and the orb with which to see 
were not on the same " plane." It was impos- 
sible to perform the act of spiritually seeing. 
The proper light once obtained, it has not only 
illumined for me the things to be seen, but also 
my capacity for seeing and comprehending them. 
Roentgen has taught us the method of seeing 
material things through opaque bodies. I have 
learned to recognize spiritual phenomena in opaque 
bodies, created, as they are, by a combination of 
spiritual and material factors. While I have made 
use of this gift for a special study — that of vocal 
utterance — I incline to think that it may be made 
use of for the study of not only all the various 
material-spiritual phenomena to be observed in the 
nature of organic bodies in general and man's in 
particular, but also of our relations with the unseen 
and unknown world and its forces, in which our 
essence has its being, whence it comes, and to which 
it returns. In minutely explaining my mode of 
proceeding, it is also my special desire to rob it of 
any appearance of " supernaturalness " some per- 
sons might be inclined to invest it with. Though 
I cannot explain many things connected with the 



Inspiration — Expiration 77 

voice from an entirely naturalistic standpoint, I 
think they are all explainable if the proper amount 
of study and observation be given to them. This, 
as a matter of course, does not, however, include 
the operations of the mind proper, which are gov- 
erned by laws beyond any human understanding. 

INSPIRATION — EXPIRATION 

The entire mechanism of our being, more espe- 
cially that of our faculties and functions, is primarily 
excited through openings into which air is inspired, 
from which air is expired. These openings are con- 
nected with channels and vessels which are passive 
or negative during inspiration; active or positive 
during expiration. Thus the multiform streams of 
air introduced into our system communicate with 
parts thereof, which, by their construction and in- 
tercommunication with others, are specially adapted 
for the exercise of any special faculty or function. 
Our will directs these streams of air to flow into 
their proper channels (and they automatically obey) 
for the guidance of our steps in a certain direction, 
for the production of a given sound, the recognition 
of a given sight, the sensation of a peculiar odor, 
taste, or feeling, or the excitation of a passion, 
a compassion, or any other sensation, feeling, or 
thought whatsoever. These streams of air, there- 
fore, are of an order as multiform as the complex 
web of our material and spiritual existence, and are 
introduced through thousands of different channels 
and in thousands of different ways. 

To confine our mode of physical and spiritual 



73 Duality of Voice 

existence to a single stream of air introduced into 
the oral cavity, or the nostrils, and thence into the 
lungs, appears to me to be as primitive a proceeding 
and as narrow a view as can possibly be taken of one 
of the greatest subjects our understanding is called 
upon to deal with. In place of that, I have positive 
proof that the streams of air which flow into these 
openings are of the most multiform nature; every 
sight, odor, taste, touch, and every sound, and frac- 
tion of a sound even, calling for a special stream of 
air which no other stream can furnish or supply. 
Besides the oral cavity and the nostrils, the eyes, 
ears, and every additional opening, down to an 
almost invisible pore or capillary vessel, are recipients 
of special streams intended for special purposes. We 
breathe through the soles of our feet and the palms 
of our hands, as well as through the skull of our heads. 
The closer we guard our body against the influence 
of the air, by means of unnaturally close-woven and 
air-tight clothing, the less capable we become of exer- 
cising our natural faculties and functions. 

To this subject I shall devote time and attention 
at some future period, more especially in connec- 
tion with vocal utterance, as it has everything to 
do with the production of sounds, which proceed in 
part from within, outwardly, and in part from with- 
out, inwardly. In so doing, positive becomes nega- 
tive and negative positive ; inspiration and expiration 
equalize each other, and thus a continuous flow of 
speech becomes possible, while if the flow were 
continuously in one and the same direction it would 
soon come to an absolute stop. 



Inspiration — Expiration 79 

It is this that science has done for us : It has 
clogged up all these natural avenues to our existence 
by teaching that we breathe through the trachea 
alone, in consequence of the muscle of the dia- 
phragm forming an air-tight partition between the 
upper and lower compartments of our bodies ; being 
ignorant of the fact of that other great tube of the 
oesophagus, also opening into the oral cavity, per- 
forming the same functions for the abdomen which 
the trachea does for the thorax. In place of all 
these millions of openings through which we inspire 
and expire, science teaches that we breathe through 
a single tube, into and out of an air-tight sack, — a 
mechanically impossible proceeding. By some ill- 
defined process, air is supposed to find its way into 
the thorax and out again after depositing its oxygen 
in the blood-vessels. Meanwhile, the balance of our 
body is left to shift for itself, not the slightest particle 
of fresh food ever finding its way into any portion 
thereof, except indirectly through the blood-vessels. 
To my simple and untaught understanding it appears 
that if such a state of affairs really existed — no mat- 
ter how rapid the circulation of the blood — the 
entire hemisphere of the abdomen would be given 
over to putrefaction in an exceedingly short space 
of time. 

Breathing, however, as we do, through the oesoph- 
agus, in like measure with the trachea, and through 
every other opening in our epidermis in addition, 
our body is constantly, uninterruptedly, permeated 
with fresh air in its every avenue, vessel, capillary 
tube, cell, etc., which sustains us by its life-giving 



80 Duality of Voice 

qualities, and takes away with it the constantly ac- 
cumulating refuse. 

The muscle of the diaphragm has been the air- 
tight door to the cell of the condemned, whose 
portal has been guarded by ignorance and every 
oppression, suppression, fear, superstition, anxiety, 
bigotry, narrowness, prejudice, etc., that the human 
mind is capable of. It has given us over to self- 
accusation as a natural and vital element. It has 
shut us up into the narrowest limits, and kept us 
from communing with the universe and the spirit of 
the universe. It has excluded from us the grace, 
the beauty, the light, the liberty, the eternity of the 
spirit, and prevented us from recognizing ourselves 
as integral parts of the universe and of the causes 
which sustain it and sustain us. It has prevented 
us from communing with them as free agents in our 
own name and by our own right, without interference 
or the intercession of any person or agency what- 
soever, in the past or the present. 

Have I placed too great a value on the discovery 
of the " voice of the oesophagus " ? 

I feel convinced that the further exposition of my 
observations will justify me in all I have said. 

DIAPHRAGMS 

As the trunk has its diaphragm, dividing thorax 
and abdomen, so do all dual hemispheres repre- 
senting a faculty or function have their diaphragms, 
performing duties of an analogous nature. Every 
opening, in fact, has its diaphragm. Where there 
is none visible, it is formed by contraction, when- 



Diaphragms 81 

ever needed, and but for the time being. All these 
various diaphragms, more particularly the one spe- 
cially bearing that name, are of the greatest import- 
ance in connection with vocal utterance, — the sounds 
of the vessels of the abdomen being produced by an 
expansion of the thorax and consequent contraction 
of the abdomen, those of the vessels of the thorax 
by an expansion of the abdomen and a consequent 
contraction of the thorax. 

For the purposes of vocal utterance, inspiration 
into the thorax produces an expiration from the 
abdomen by way of the oesophagus, accompanied 
by vocal sound, while an inspiration into the abdo- 
men produces an expiration from the thorax by way 
of the trachea, accompanied by vocal sound ; the 
special mode of inspiration regulating the special 
sound to be produced. 

This proceeding has reference to outgoing sounds 
only. For ingoing sounds the opposite proceeding 
takes place ; an expiration from the thorax produc- 
ing an inspiration into the abdomen, and an expira- 
tion from the abdomen an inspiration into the 
thorax, both accompanied by sound. Every origi- 
nal inspiration into thorax or abdomen, of course, 
must have been preceded by an expiration from 
these parts, while every original expiration must 
have been preceded by an inspiration into the same. 
The utterance of every sound, therefore, requires at 
least three movements on the part of the respiratory 
organs. But for the action of the diaphragm, such 
sounds could not be produced. 

All these various diaphragms fall or recede for 

6 



82 Duality of Voice 

inspiration, rise or advance for expiration ; the 
function of a diaphragm being exercised in conform- 
ity with the manner in which it is approached. 
This may be done by way of the oesophagus or the 
trachea, i. e., from the side of the hemisphere of 
the abdomen, or from that of the thorax. The 
outward movement of the abdomen during res- 
piration, therefore, is not caused by a pressure 
brought to bear on its contents by the diaphragm, 
but it advances and recedes in conformity with a 
direct process of inspiration and expiration by way 
of the oesophagus and the trachea; the oesophagus 
and trachea sustaining each other and acting recip- 
rocally and in conjunction. This presumed pressing 
forward and subsequent receding of the entrails, in 
consequence of the descent and ascent of the dia- 
phragm, presents a spectacle as repugnant as it 
is impossible of execution; the extension of the 
abdomen, more particularly in connection with 
special sounds, being so great that no pressure 
whatever brought to bear upon the entrails could 
possibly produce it. 

In place of this theory, now so generally enter- 
tained, the simple fact obtains that the diaphragm 
descends in consequence of an influx of air into and 
subsequent expansion of the thorax, causing a con- 
traction of the abdomen and an efflux of air from 
the same; that it ascends in consequence of an 
influx of air into and expansion of the abdomen, 
causing a contraction of the thorax and an efflux of 
air from the same. 



IMPRESSION AND EXPRESSION 



ALL vocal expression is but an echo, the echo of 
a thought. Thought must precede vocal ex- 
pression. It is not possible to produce a vocal 
sound, not the simplest, without thought. There 
is no such thing as a voice ipso facto, no more than 
there is music in a musical instrument unless it is 
called forth by the hand of the player. Try it. 
Come upon a sound suddenly, around the corner, 
as it were, and then express it. Do not give it a 
moment's time for its development; that is, do not 
give thought time to mould a form for it, but try 
to utter it in embryo, so to say, the very moment 
you think of it, and you will not be able to do it. 
You will not produce any sound whatever. 

It is as necessary to form a mould for a sound as 
it is for any shaped and moulded material article. 
Out of this mould it comes forth in conformity 
with the form we have given it : harsh, abrupt, 
discordant — rhythmical, beautiful, soulful. Such as 
the thought is, so will be the expression. In ordi- 
nary conversation this proceeding is automatic and 
mechanical, in elocution or song more or less voli- 
tional and artistic. That is to say, for ordinary 

83 



84 Duality of Voice 

speech it acts automatically, for artistic utterance 
it acts designedly. Materially, the mould is convex, 
shut, for ingoing ; concave, open, for outgoing 
sounds. It expands for the former, it contracts for 
the latter. Vocal sounds are a product of matter as 
well as mind; the act itself which produces them 
being a connecting link between matter and mind. 
The soul calls on the body to aid it in giving form to 
its desires and intentions; the body instantly obeys 
and assumes the form from which the expected sound 
or action is to arise. 

No matter how great a soul may be, unless it can 
give form and consequent utterance to its greatness, 
it will be helpless, far more so than the simplest soul 
capable of giving expression to its simplicity. Con- 
fined to our own limits, like the congenital deaf, our 
faculties become dwarfed and useless. We do not 
know ourselves, do not know our own souls. We 
must expand, go out into the world and take it in, 
if we want to grow and give our faculties a chance 
to develop. 

The greater our horizon, the more we can take in, 
the more we can give out. Our soul is scarcely ours 
when enchained ; the greater its liberty, the more it 
belongs to us. Hence our just pity for the congeni- 
tal deaf, and our desire to assist them in their efforts 
at expression. Those among them who are being, 
or have been, tutored, receive their impressions 
through their eyes in the form assumed by the 
speaker's mouth; the eye assuming the function of 
the ear. The form assumed by their teacher's mouth, 
however, not being perfect, a perfect impression 



Impression and Expression 85 

cannot be made. Hence the expression of the deaf 
is in conformity with the impression they have ob- 
tained : mechanical, material, soulless. The exterior 
lines of the mouth of. the teacher, or any other 
speaker's from which the deaf draw their inspiration, 
are those of the material side of the medal. Failing 
to see the reverse side thereof, namely, the interior 
of the mouth, which is its spiritual side, the lines of 
the latter make no impression upon them. These 
fine lines on the interior side of the speaker's mouth, 
representing the rhythm, the soul of the voice, not 
being seen, fail to make that impression from which 
alone a soulful expression could arise. 

That an impression may be made through the eye 
will scarcely require a defense, in view of the fact 
that in reading aloud or in singing from notes the 
entire impression is made through the eye. The 
reader or singer, knowing the value of every sound, 
is impressed by the sight of a letter or a note as he 
would be by the sound itself. Not so with the con- 
genital deaf, who, being ignorant of such value, can- 
not reproduce it. Nor will it be contended, I suppose, 
that the deaf knowingly, designedly, or volitionally 
attempt to imitate the forms assumed by the teach- 
er's mouth, but it will be admitted that this is done 
spontaneously, and that vocal sounds with them 
arise from this imperfect mechanism, thus involun- 
tarily reproduced. 

With the congenital deaf, with persons attempt- 
ing to speak a foreign language, etc., the material 
form, as well as the spiritual impetus, being imper- 
fect, the expression will be in conformity therewith. 



86 Duality of Voice 

In how far and in what manner these investigations 
may become helpful to the deaf will be a matter for 
the not distant future to develop. That they will 
eventually become of the greatest aid to them I have 
every reason to believe. Those who have made a 
study of matters of this kind understand the diffi- 
culties surrounding the same. These difficulties are 
increased manifold where the ear of the scholar abso- 
lutely refuses to come to his own and his teacher's 
aid. 

There are forms in which vocal sounds move, 
well defined and capable of material representation, 
which are not fully expressed by the shape of the 
teacher's mouth, nor are they thus expressed by 
impressions taken by the aid of the camera. Re- 
garding the latter, it is necessary to note that photo- 
graphic representations of vocal sounds are the result 
of the combined action of the voice of the oesophagus 
and of that of the trachea, of material and imma- 
terial factors. Just in how far the latter are capable 
of being thus represented must, as yet, remain a 
matter of conjecture. 

An attempt at reconciling photographic represent- 
ations of vocal sounds with the oscillations of the 
vocal cords is, at most, a one-sided proceeding. To 
arrive at any correct conclusion at all, it would be 
necessary to take the vibrations of the " vocal lip ' 
and the fraenum into equal consideration. 

Regarding our capacity for improving the natural 
physical and psychical capabilities of the musical 
instrument of the voice, that depends upon the 
manner in which we play upon it. As it yields to 



Impression and Expression 87 

the slightest pressure of the air, either for good or 
for evil, we must, above all things, learn how to 
guide the tip of our tongue in touching its aerial 
strings or keys, which are far more sensitive than 
those of any instrument ever produced by the hand 
of man. It takes years to attain a mastery over the 
simplest musical instrument ; yet it is often expected 
that the instrument of the voice should yield to the 
most careless efforts made in the most wilful and 
indiscriminate manner. 

The thought of a sound, after producing an impres- 
sion, guides the tongue in releasing such impression. 
Unless the tongue touches or moves towards the 
exact spot which will effect such release, the expres- 
sion or the sound will not be forthcoming. That the 
impression, as well as its release, should be properly 
made, it is necessary to think of the sound which 
is to be produced, in the most precise and correct 
manner. I cannot sufficiently impress upon the 
reader's mind the importance this simple lesson 
conveys. If he will shape his manner of vocal utter- 
ance, especially his mode of singing, in conformity 
therewith, he will be able to improve his voice to a 
far greater extent than he would by following any 
or all of the realistic methods now in vogue. This 
thinking of the correct sound must be carried on for 
the next syllable during the production of the pre- 
vious one; and care must be taken not to think of 
more than one syllable at one and the same time. 
Unless this is done, no pure sound will ever be 
produced, the impression made by thinking of a 
second or third syllable overlapping that for the 



88 Duality of Voice 

next following ; thus producing a muddle and a 
discord. Rhythm being the basis for all perfect 
vocal utterance, a rhythmic impression must be 
made in order to obtain a rhythmic expression. 
This cannot be done when the former is not pre- 
served in its entire purity until it is released. 

All of us, either during our ordinary speech or 
during our efforts at artistic expression, are guided 
by the process just described; unknowingly, un- 
wittingly, properly or improperly, for good or for 
evil, pursuing this same course. I cannot enter 
upon these matters to any greater extent at this 
time, as it will be necessary to first treat of other 
matters with which they are intimately connected. 

THE PHONOGRAPH 

In trying the experiment of coming upon a sound 
unawares, simply endeavor to divest yourself of all 
thought, and then suddenly, without any preparation 
whatever, say " a," or " b," or " it," or any word 
you wish, and you will not be able to produce such 
sound or sounds — or, in fact, any sound whatsoever. 
Or, you may get some one to, of a sudden, produce 
sounds embodied in letters before your eyes; and 
you will find you will be unable to utter them in- 
stantly. While you cannot thus produce a vocal 
sound, or vocal sounds embodied in words, you can 
produce simple sounds without preparation. As 
they belong to but one hemisphere, and are conse- 
quently not the product of a compound impression, 
they may be uttered the very moment we think of 
them. While they are being uttered, our organs 



The Phonograph 89 

of speech are " shut," far more so than they are for 
vocal sounds. 

Consonant sounds cannot be uttered " vocally " 
without a vowel sound. When they appear in a 
syllable their accompanying vowel sound carries them 
and permeates them. When they appear singly we 
add a vowel sound to them. We say: "ar/'^be," 
"en," "lea," etc. ; unless we do so we cannot pro- 
nounce them. Without such accompanying vowel 
sound they would be inert. 

Simple " consonant sounds are unaccompanied, 
not * ' leavened, by a vowel sound. ' * Simple' ' vowel 
sounds, on the other hand, are unaccompanied by 
the element which constitutes consonant sounds; 
while " vocal ' vowel sounds are accompanied 
thereby. 

The word " surd/' used in connection with non- 
vocal sounds, does not express the meaning of what 
I call " simple " sounds, as all sounds may be either 
' vocal " or " simple/' while " surd M applies only 
to special sounds. 

The necessity of making an impression for vocal 
utterance also prevails in connection with motion. 
You cannot lift your right foot or your left arm, or 
make any given motion whatever, the very moment 
you think of making it. It requires some prepara- 
tion; though you may lift a part of a limb without 
preparation. A part of a limb in this sense may be 
compared to a simple, the entire limb to a vocal, 
sound. The thought must make an impression by ex- 
pansion or contraction, which, when released, will 
express the desired motion ; no matter whether such 



9° • Duality of Voice 

motion is made unconsciously or deliberately. It is 
more difficult to watch this proceeding in connection 
with sight; the operations of light being so rapid 
that the expression seems to be simultaneous with 
the impression. 

Contraction and expansion for motion are of the 
same order as they are for vocal utterance. In 
fact, both are so closely connected that we cannot 
utter a sound unless it is accompanied by a motion. 
In stopping the motion accompanying a sound, we 
stop our ability of uttering such sound. I shall 
have occasion to call attention to numerous condi- 
tions under which it will be impossible to utter 
sounds, either separate or connected, by stopping 
the motion necessary to produce such sounds. It 
is all due to the fact that we are homogeneous 
beings, whose powers are interdependent upon one 
another. 

The effect of the teacher's voice upon his or her 
scholar's organization is of a similar order to that 
made by thought upon the teacher's own organiza- 
tion. That it is not of the same order is due to the 
fact that the organization upon which it is made is 
but rarely constituted the same, is not as highly 
organized and developed or " schooled," as the one 
from which the voice emanated. The impression 
made by the singing-teacher's voice is of the same 
order as that made upon the deaf by the features of 
their instructor which are representative of his voice. 
We are living, breathing phonographs. Every im- 
pression we receive through any of our senses must 
be made in a material manner before it can have 



The Phonograph 91 

its immaterial expression. We engrave upon living 
tissue, instead of on rubber or wax. 

I repeat that, to obtain a pure sound, the thought 
underlying such sound or sounds must be purely, 
clearly defined. We cannot obtain a clear impression 
from a seal whose engraving is blurred, or when the 
sealing-wax is not in a proper condition of softness, 
or when the hand is not steady which makes the 
impression. The same conditions prevail with vocal 
utterance. Thought makes the impression ; the 
aether, passing through its narrowed passages at a 
rate as swift as thought, creates the sound. The 
impression is made as thought progresses, the ex- 
pression as sound progresses. While the impression 
is thoughtful, the expression is thoughtless. While 
we think for a sound during the impression, we do 
not think for it during its expression; but we think, 
during the latter, for the next sound. If this were 
not the case, consecutive speech would be a matter 
of impossibility. The artist's thought is embodied 
in the creation of the model for his statue from 
which a mould is made. The casting of the statue, 
equal to its expression, is mechanical, thoughtless. 

In this connection the brain is of the same order 
as the tablets of the phonograph. For ordinary use, 
however, the lines engraved upon it are evanescent ; 
they disappear again with the sound or thought 
which releases them. Impressions, however, of a 
deeper nature remain — some forever. The thought 
or sounds they represent, the same as the lines on the 
tablets of the phonograph, are released but for the 
time being and while such thought and sounds 



$2 Duality of Voice 

(through association) are recalled to memory. The 
thought and sounds are evanescent, but the lines 
which represent them remain for further use, the 
same as the lines on the tablets of the phonograph 
and the strings of a musical instrument. If we 
could read aright the lines which the voice makes 
on the tablets of the phonograph or on the negative 
plates of the photographer, we would obtain a cor- 
rect insight into their character. These studies, 
when fully developed, may lead to a comprehension 
of these hieroglyphics, the same as the Greek trans- 
lation on the Rosetta stone furnished the cue to the 
comprehension of the hieroglyphics of the Egyptian 
monuments. 

STUTTERING, STAMMERING 

What is all this I am writing ? 

It is an endeavor at giving expression to an im- 
pression obtained of a great subject imperfectly 
understood. The general ideas underlying it all are 
on the lines of truth, but the contours are evanes- 
cent, the lines representing special features ill- 
defined, while the finer shadings are almost entirely 
wanting. It is a stuttering, a stammering, in matters 
my mind is too narrow to grasp, incapable of com- 
prehending in all their bearings, impotent to take in 
in their ultimate relations. Still, I am doing what I 
can with such material as nature has placed at my dis- 
posal. Thought failing to make a clear impression, 
my pen, I fear, cannot give a clear expression to it all. 

Regarding the subject of stuttering proper, I must 
still preface it with some remarks of a general nature. 



Stuttering, Stammering 93 

The influx and efflux of streams of air into and out 
of our system, called breathing, is of a very com- 
plicated nature. While we designate the same by 
the general terms of inspiration and expiration, these 
streams are of as multiform a nature as the ethereal 
fabrics they are intended to weave, whose weft they 
form, and whose warp is of a more material nature. 
Call these fabrics what you please — actions, speech, 
feelings, passions, fancies, sensations, etc. While 
these streams form innumerable separate systems, 
they are all subject to one and the same law — rhythm. 
The more perfect the rhythm the higher the devel- 
opment and consequent performance. 

While we always breathe, or should breathe, in 
the same rhythmic order (the octave) for the sus- 
tenance of life in general, we unconsciously breathe 
in various other measures for an endless number of 
other purposes. Our dual nature, and the duality of 
the manner in which we breathe, as a rule enable 
us to go through these various performances with- 
out a disturbance as to the harmonious character of 
our existence. It is a great orchestral performance 
by instruments of various kinds and orders, each 
performer playing his own notes, specially adapted 
to his particular part and instrument ; yet all coming 
together in one harmonious ensemble. This fact 
finds expression, clearly defined, in the various 
measures in which metre and rhythm are clad for 
poetry and song. The introduction into our system 
of a rhythmic flow of streams of air for the various 
purposes of vocal utterance is conditioned upon a 
rhythmic flow of thought. 



94 Duality of Voice 

To perfectly render a poetical conception by words 
either spoken or sung, the performer's mind must be. 
in accord with the rhythm underlying such concep- 
tion. In that case only will he breathe and, conse- 
quently, speak or sing in the requisite manner for 
such production. I should have prefaced all this by 
saying that, in the same manner as inspiration and 
expiration succeed each other in regular rotation, so 
do the ordinary measures of long and short ( — ^), 
or short and long (y — ), in simple forms of poetry, 
succeed each other in regular rotation ; long ( — ), 
or stress, always standing for expiration, short (^), 
or repose, for inspiration. As a matter of fact, 
however, inspiration is of longer duration than ex- 
piration. 

All other forms are artistic, and are produced by 
a mode of thinking, and consequent breathing, as 
variable as the subject may suggest or demand. 
For ordinary speech, while the rhythm is not of the 
same order as that for poetry, a rhythmic order of 
some kind must be, and always is, observed. That 
the rhythm is not noticeable is due to the fact that, 
while inspiration and expiration in prose writing 
and ordinary conversation follow each other in 
regular rotation, they are not always accompa- 
nied by sound. Hence the rhythmic irregularities 
of speech exist only in appearance and in the inar- 
tistic manner in which speech is generally, and 
prose writing often, produced. A person who 
speaks and writes his language well, speaks and 
writes it rhythmically, always. Good style is 
synonymous with correct rhythmical expression, 



Stuttering, Stammering 95 

superinduced by correct breathing ; rhythmic ex- 
pression depending entirely upon rhythmic im- 
pression, and the latter upon rhythmic thought, 
accompanied by rhythmic breathing. 

To write well (that is, a good style), to speak well 
(as an orator, actor, or elocutionist), to sing well, it 
is, above all things, necessary that the performer's 
mind should be in a state of conformity with the 
situation which is to be described. His flow of 
thought, and consequent breathing and mode of 
expression, will then correspond with the scope, 
drift, and circumstance underlying his performance. 
Unless this is the case, the latter will be unsatisfac- 
tory, unimpressive, unsympathetic. To prove that 
for a satisfactory performance this must be the case, 
it will but be necessary to call attention to the fact 
that under various emotions our mode of breath- 
ing undergoes great changes — as under fear, hate, 
jealousy, indignation, excitement, love, enthusiasm, 
benevolence, languor, apathy, etc. Our breath- 
ing under these different circumstances will, the 
same as the manner of our expression, undergo 
various stages of change as to time and measure, as 
well as to rhythm, emphasis and intonation. 

The character and rapidity of the flow of our 
blood is of the same order as our manner of breath- 
ing. It is, in fact, as I expect to prove later on, 
not only of the same order, but of the same origin 
and regulated by the same causes. The flow of the 
blood is not merely of a material order, but of a 
spiritual one as well. While it is acted upon by the 
mind it reacts upon the mind. 



96 Duality of Voice 

The thought must be measured and restricted as 
to time, so as to enable it to make the proper im- 
pression and produce a corresponding expression 
before another thought comes along crowding in 
upon the preceding one and in so doing blurring 
the impression made by the latter before it had 
been given the time to be expressed. If the neces- 
sary time is not granted for an impression to be 
made and for the expression thereof to obliterate 
the same, the premature flow of another thought, 
coming on top of the first, will make a new impres- 
sion over the previous one, causing confusion and 
making a clear expression a matter of impossibility. 
Unless our professor, while standing in front of his 
blackboard demonstrating before his class, has a 
sponge in his hand, and before again writing in the 
same place wipes out that which he had written 
before, the new writing will not be of such a nature 
that it can be understood. The slate endures; but 
the thought and the writing are always new. Yet, 
when such writing is of an impressive nature, it is like 
that of a palimpsest ; though apparently obliterated, 
its lines remain, and their meaning can be recalled 
to memory as often as the occasion may demand it. 

The " muddle " of which I have spoken is often- 
times so great that no sound of any kind can ensue, 
the rhythmic flow of sound-producing streams hav- 
ing been disturbed and prevented from assuming 
the necessary shape for their formation into proper 
sound-waves by this hasty mode of thinking. The 
consequence is a hiatus in the natural flow of speech, 
which prevents the thought from materializing in 



Stuttering, Stammering 97 

the shape of the word intended to be spoken. This 
hiatus the victim of such precipitate mode of think- 
ing generally attempts to bridge over by spasmodic 
efforts, which but serve to aggravate the situation, 
increasing, as they do, the disorder in the sound- 
producing lines. 

Stuttering being caused by a disorder in these 
lines, the remedy is to again restore them to order. 
The disorder having been caused by a too hasty 
mode of thinking, superinduced, as a rule, by a de- 
sire not to stutter, or a fear of stuttering, the remedy 
lies in allaying this fear. The fear of stuttering, or 
the anxiety not to stutter, which obtains while the 
speaker is producing thought, itself being thought, 
and coming on top of the thought intended to be 
uttered, brings about, or at least aggravates, the 
very difficulty he was trying to overcome. Mere 
thought may wander off and again return to its 
theme, unrestrained, and without causing disturb- 
ance; but thought which is to be vocally uttered 
must strictly adhere to its subject. There is no im- 
pression to be made by the former which must 
remain until it is released by vocal sound ; impres- 
sion and expression being almost simultaneous. In 
place of making a spasmodic effort, therefore, the 
stutterer should endeavor to be calm, and to then 
calmly think the word or sentence over again which 
has become a stumbling-block in his way. After 
doing so, he will have no trouble uttering it. 

The fact that stutterers experience no difficulty in 
singing is a proof of the correctness of these asser- 
tions. While singing, the performer's streams of life 



98 Duality of Voice 

and organs of speech are all tuned to one harmonious 
measure. His frame of mind being securely in ac- 
cord with his theme, his thought, devoid of fear, 
flows evenly along with his song. There is no oc- 
casion for haste or trepidation in this instance, — there 
cannot be, haste being the opposite to and the 
enemy of harmony, the latter meaning a continuous 
return of the same measure and the same mode of 
breathing, the former irregularity and disorder in 
the mode of breathing. 

Besides, song, belonging to the pharynx, is spirit- 
ual ; it is of our inner nature, and therefore restful 
and continuous. While speech, which belongs to the 
oral cavity, is material ; it is of our outer nature, 
and therefore subject to every impression, influence, 
and consequent change. Elocution, declamation, 
or recitation, on the other hand, partake of both 
our inner and our outer nature. They belong in 
part to the pharynx and in part to the oral cavity. 

Experiments may be made by means of making 
these respective parts rigid which will establish the 
correctness of these assertions. 

These experiments can also be made by the ap- 
plication of mechanical pressure. When pressing 
your hand or fingers against your throat you will be 
unable to speak, though it will not prevent you 
from singing. By pressing them against the back 
of your neck you will be unable to sing, though 
you may speak. By pressing them against either 
side of your neck you will be unable to recite, 
though you may both speak and sing. The slight- 
est pressure, even, will produce these results. Let 



Stuttering, Stammering 99 

me remark, however, that unless the thought of the 
performance accompanies it, a mere mechanical pres- 
sure will not suffice. 

That thought, improperly exercised, is the cause of 
stuttering or stammering, obtains from the fact, 
that the utterance of the singer, elocutionist or 
actor, being a matter of memory, and not of original 
thought, is not subject to these troubles; though 
the utterance of the same persons while speaking, 
and in so doing, thinking, may be subject thereto. 

Not appreciating its significance, I used to laugh 
with everybody else at the anecdote of a stuttering 
boy in an apothecary shop, who had been sent down 
after some article in the cellar. Returning, pale, 
trembling, and stammering, his master cried out, 
1 Sing, sing! M whereupon he delivered himself 
thus: 

" Der spiritus im keller brennt, 
Und alles steht in flammen." 
(" The spirits, master, are aflame, 
And all things are a-burning.") 

In a recent number of Cosmopolis, Prof. Max 
Muller said : 

" Charles Kingsley was a great martyr to stammering, 
and it was torture to him to keep conversation waiting 
until he could put his thoughts into words. Singularly 
enough, at church, Kingsley did not stammer at all in 
reading or speaking ; but on his way home from church 
he would say to one with whom he was walking : ' Oh ? 
let me stammer now ; you won't mind it ! ' " 



ioo Duality of Voice 

While his thoughts were concentrated on his sub- 
ject, which had probably been elaborated before- 
hand and was expressed in rhythmic language, 
besides being obliged to speak slowly and deliber- 
ately so as to be heard and understood, he experi- 
enced no difficulty. Still, he was under a restraint. 
As soon as he was by himself again, he commenced 
to think impulsively, as probably was his habit, and 
gave vent to a torrent of thoughts, which overleaped 
each other like waters rushing through a broken 
dam. 

There are two main forms in which this trouble 
manifests itself. The one is a surfeit, a crowding 
together of sounds, all of which want to come to 
the surface at one and the same time, like a crowd 
of people during a panic trying to rush out through 
the same door, thus causing a jam. This form, 
creating a hiatus in vocal utterance, is generally 
designated by the term " stammering. " That 
which is called " stuttering/' on the other hand, 
consisting, as it does, in a repetition of the same 
sound, is due to the opposite cause. While the 
former is due to too great an effort, this is due to a 
paucity of effort. The sound-furnishing element is 
not under control; it leaks out against the will, it 
runs away with you. Hence a repetition of the 
form once assumed, in consequence of a lack of 
nerve force, of a rein to keep it in check, of a brake 
preventing it from rushing down-hill with you ; in 
contradistinction to the act of stammering, in which 
the brake had been too forcibly applied, the watch 
wound up too firmly and beyond its requirements. 



Stuttering, Stammering ioi 

In the case of stammering the impression has 
been too quick in shaping itself into words ; in the 
other it has been too slow in so doing. In the 
former case too many moulds have been formed for 
proper impression ; while in the latter the sound is 
spoken before the mould has been properly and com- 
pletely formed ; that part only which had been formed 
being uttered and repeated. In the case of stam- 
mering there is a surfeit of impression but a want of 
sound ; in that of stuttering there is a want of im- 
pression but a surfeit of sound. A stammerer is 
one who takes in too much, a stutterer one who 
takes in too little, air for his hasty way of thinking. 

When this trouble happens with one and the 
same person — as it sometimes does — it first assumes 
one shape and then the other; it turns a complete 
somersault in so doing. The balance, the equilib- 
rium, the point of gravitation, previously over- 
leaped on one side, is again overleaped, and the 
person lands on its extreme other side. While a 
stammerer he had too much ballast on board, now 
he has too little. 

A stammerer can return to the point of gravitation 
by throwing some of his surplus ballast overboard. 
His tongue being tied to his lower jaw, in which 
position he is constantly taking in more air than he 
needs, lie must raise it in order to let the surplus out 
from beneath the same. 

A stutterer, whose tongue is running away with 
him, owing to an insufficiency of ballast, must take 
in enough (inspire sufficiently) to bring him back to 
his point of gravitation. His tongue is in a loose 



t02 Duality of Voice 

state of elevation, in tvhich position the air is con- 
stantly streaming out (expiring} from beneath the 
same. He must lower it to have his balance re- 
stored, as in so doing the air will stream in over 
and above the tongue until the equilibrium has been 
restored. In other words, the person who is thus 
agitated must calm himself, he must relax from an 
overstrain in either one direction or the other. The 
diaphragm, holding the balance of power, will be 
found to be in as uncontrollable a condition as the 
tongue, with which it always acts in unison. In re- 
storing the tongue to a normal condition we restore 
the diaphragm to a normal condition. 

The institutions for the cure of stuttering, stam- 
mering, and intermediate stages of the same trouble, 
attempt to bring about a state of restoration of the 
disturbed balance by means arrived at through 
experience. The real cause being unknown, the 
remedies must necessarily be restricted. If persons 
thus afflicted will take their own cases in hand and 
treat them in conformity with the precepts here laid 
down, the chances are in favor of their being cured 
where no other remedy had been of any avail. 

As the preceding remarks have been made from 
the point of view of an English-speaking person, the 
standpoint of a German being diametrically oppo- 
site, the same must all be reversed to fit the case of 
a German, in so far as locality is concerned. For 
stammering, the tongue of a German is closely zvedged 
in, in the direction of the roof of the mouth ; for stut- 
tering, it is loosely pointing downward. This is owing 
to the fact that a German inspires from under and 



The Cathode of a Vocal Sound 103 

beneath, and expires from over and above, his 
tongue; just the reverse of the manner in which 
this is done by an English-speaking person. 

In order to efficiently cure the trouble of stutter- 
ing, it is necessary that the act of breathing and 
sound-production should be closely studied with 
every separate nationality, as these processes differ 
with all nationalities; this difference being very pro- 
nounced as between Germans and Anglo-Saxons. 
For an American to go to Germany, therefore, to 
be cured of this trouble, is as false a step as for a 
German to go to the United States or England for 
this purpose. 

While I have in the preceding endeavored to give 
an account of the general causes which result in 
stuttering, I have not touched upon such special 
causes as are directly connected with the character 
and origin of vocal sounds; the explanation of 
which must be postponed to a future period. 

THE CATHODE OF A VOCAL SOUND 

By an accident, in some respects not unlike the 
one which drew Roentgen's attention to the light 
by whose aid we have learned to look into and 
through opaque bodies, I (myself an accident, an 
appearance on' and soon to be a disappearance from 
the illuminated surface of the earth) have discovered 
eternal laws, by whose aid we shall be able to com- 
prehend much of what has heretofore been as a 
closed book to us, regarding our physical and psy- 
chical nature and the exercise of our faculties and 
functions, 



104 Duality of Voice 

During my endeavors to overcome the difficulties 
which my German tongue offered to the perfect 
pronunciation of the English " r " sound, and during 
an almost frantic effort on one occasion at so doing, 
I was amazed by the fact that while one " r " came 
to the surface from over and above the tongue, 
another made its appearance from under and be- 
neath the same. The latter was the " r" of the 
voice of the oesophagus. Of all this, however, I 
have spoken at length in my previous publication. 

Though it occurred to me at once like a flash that 
this was a revelation of the greatest importance, its 
real significance was only made clear to me in the 
course of time. No matter how I view it, as time 
progresses it assumes greater and greater propor- 
tions. There is no event in the history of man 
which appears to me to be of greater significance. 
Through this " accident' I was induced to look 
closer and closer into my inner nature, where, to 
my amazement, I found that a world, apparently 
silent and mysterious, and supposed to be unap- 
proachable, was the abode of numberless physi- 
cal and psychical phenomena, clearly defined and 
definable. 

The " r " which came to the surface from beneath 
my tongue by way of the oesophagus was the cath- 
ode, the negative end of this sound. The product 
of its combination with the simple l< r " (which came 
to the surface from over and above the tongue by 
way of the trachea) I had hitherto produced when 
attempting to speak English, was the vocal " r' 
sound of the English language; the " r ' I had 



The Cathode of a Vocal Sound 105 

hitherto produced having been the anode — the posi- 
tive and first part of this sound only. As Roent- 
gen's cathodic light has illuminated the physical 
body, so have cathodic sounds illumined for me 
the spiritual body of my mundane existence. I am 
endeavoring to show my fellowmen this* 'new light," 
whose lustre, also invisible on ordinary occasions, 
when once seen is so great that it will never again 
fade from the memory of the beholder. As time 
progresses, it will continue to penetrate ever more 
deeply into regions hitherto considered to be im- 
pervious to any kind of light ; regions whose phe- 
nomena have been called supernatural, or, at least, 
beyond the sphere of the knowledge of man. All 
other anodes or cathodes of which we have obtained 
any knowledge belong to physical phenomena only. 
The cathode I have discovered belongs to our 
spiritual life, being a part of a living vocal sound. 

Think of it! To be able to divide the essence of 
life and to obtain two living parts, each endowed 
with a life of its own ! This is a nearer approach to 
the knowledge of life than any ever attained before. 
A vocal sound is an entity. From entities we can- 
not learn anything. They are phenomena complete 
in themselves. Regarding their innermost nature, 
they have always been to us as a closed book. They 
offer us no vantage-ground ; no opening, no breach, 
through which we can enter into the mysterious 
process of their existence. No matter whether such 
life or existence be that of the minutest parasite of 
a minute vegetable growth, that growth itself, or 
the giant of the forest ; whether it be that of a 



106 Duality of Voice 

microbe or the microbe of a microbe; whether it be 
the essence of a thought, a sigh, a tear, a look, a 
vocal sound, or of a human being — their inner- 
most natures are all alike mysterious to us. I have 
succeeded in analyzing a vocal sound, and this ap- 
parently simple proceeding has opened up to me 
endless vistas in endless directions. I have reduced 
this entity into its natural elements, and have again 
put these together. After resolving it into two lives 
I have again formed it into one. I can bring about 
this analysis as well as this synthesis at will at any 
time. 

All know what is meant by vocal sounds, yet few, 
I repeat, know what are simple sounds, though con- 
stantly used by everybody while whispering or utter- 
ing exclamations, while surprised, alarmed, fright- 
ened, etc. My accomplishment, therefore, is but 
the recognition of the nature of a thing constantly 
before us and brought to our consciousness through 
our ear. 

Simple sounds are the anodes, the beginnings of 
sounds. There is no life in them, no rhythm, no 
melody, no light, no grace, no beauty. These are 
imparted to them by the fusion of the cathode ele- 
ment of vocal sounds with this, the anode; the 
spiritual with the material. The anode is formed 
first. It is the passive element, the female, the 
patient, the waiting, which must have been before 
the male, the impatient, the aggressive. The thing 
to be fructified must have been before that which 
fructifies. 

The anode is quiescent until the cathode comes 



The Cathode of a Vocal Sound 107 

along, joins it, and infuses life into it. The creation 
of a vocal sound is an act of generation. The 
cathode, after overwhelming the anode, penetrates 
it and diffuses itself throughout it, and thus forms 
a union whose result is the production of a vocal 
sound. Similar unions between anodes and cathodes 
are formed a myriad-fold every moment during 
time's progress, and result in the creation of an 
electric spark, or a succession of sparks, called an 
electric light, or any other light or fire, or of a 
thought, or of the embryo to a new life of any and 
every description, etc. ; while a discord, a stutter, 
a smouldering fire, the sight of a thing too dimly 
seen to be recognized, a cut or broken limb, a 
suspense, a disappointment, a suppressed action or 
passion, etc., are anodes not joined by their cath- 
odes. By the juncture of a cathode with an anode 
we exercise our faculties, we become conscious of a 
sight, a sound, an odor, a taste, etc. ; the anode 
being vested in the thing to be seen, heard, smelled, 
or tasted, — the cathode in ourselves. 

While the anode of a vocal sound may be uttered 
audibly, the cathode, by itself, cannot be uttered — the 
spiritual cannot be materialized except in conjunction 
with the material. The anode, the physical, is inert 
until the cathode, the spiritual, has formed a junc- 
ture with it, has been alloyed with it. Every phe- 
nomenon of which we become conscious is the result 
of a process of this nature. The more perfect the 
union, the more perfect the outcome or result, the 
phenomenon. 

In our ordinary speech this alloy, this union, is 



108 Duality of Voice 

of a mutable and evanescent, in oratory and song 
it is of a more continuous and lasting, nature. 
With persons speaking a foreign tongue, and with 
the deaf, it is superficial, imperfect; in many cases, 
in fact, we hear only anodes, no union having been 
effected. The amalgamation, the alloy of the finer 
with the coarser, the higher with the lower, the 
spiritual with the material, is not at all or but im- 
perfectly performed; the coarser element prevails 
and makes its presence felt in every utterance. The 
more perfect the union between anodes and cathodes 
in vocal utterance, the higher will be the perform- 
ance, the more perfect the speech, the more beauti- 
ful the song, the more stirring, the more soulful ; the 
nearer they come to our hearts. 

How do I know all this ? I will tell you : By 
watching the beginning of a vocal sound ; the perform, 
ance actually going on within us, while such sound 
is first being created. This performance is of an in- 
verse order as between German and English, in so 
far as the anode for German vocal sounds is located 
to the right, the cathode to the left. The cathode 
approaches the anode from left to right ; while in 
the creation of an English vocal sound the anode is 
to the left, the cathode to the right, and the latter 
approaches the former from right to left. The loca- 
tion where the union appears to take place is in the 
chest, near the heart; for German sounds, to the 
right thereof, for English to the left. As a matter 
of fact, however, it is in the heart itself. 

What does the motion in which anode and cath- 
ode approach each other — which is not direct as it at 



The Cathode of a Vocal Sound 109 

first appears to the observer, but vastly circuitous — 
signify ? 

The circulation through the vascular system of the 
elements (of the aether) creating vocal sounds, or the 
circulation of vocal sotmds. The proofs that this im- 
portant fact actually obtains will be furnished very 
positively and very circumstantially at a later date 
in connection with that part of these expositions 
which treats on vocal sounds. 






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OUR MOTHER TONGUE 

NATURE will have its right always. What is 
this right in regard to vocal utterance ? It is 
the manner in which we breathe. When we violate 
nature's right in our mode of breathing for vocal 
expression, our penalty is that such expression will 
not be what it is intended to be, what it should be ; 
the idiomatic expression of every language being the 
outcome of a special mode of breathing for the same. 
All my observations in the first instance owe their 
origin to the fact that I was breathing in a manner 
directly opposite to the one in which it was necessary 
for me to breathe to correctly produce the idiomatic 
expression of the English language. It was not until 
after this fact had become clear to my mind that I 
began to extract from my organs of speech those 
sounds which appear so abnormally different and 
" strange " to the ear of the bewildered foreigner, 
who finds himself completely at a loss how to pro- 
duce them. The better he becomes acquainted with 
the language, the more thoroughly he becomes con- 
vinced of the fact that his mode of speaking English 
is different from that of the native-born. Nor will 
a German ever succeed in speaking English as it 

no 



Our Mother Tongue 1 1 1 

should be spoken until he succeeds in reversing his 
mode of breathing. He must go straight to the 
antipodes in sound production ; he must stand on 
his head, so to say, instead of on his feet. I shall 
fully explain what this means later on. 

I venture to make the assertion that no other 
person besides myself has ever learned to pronounce 
a foreign language idiomatically correct, as I have, 
by means of applying to his mode of speaking rules 
based on actual knowledge or scientific principles. 
In this manner I have succeeded in learning to speak 
English with less of the tinge of a foreign accent 
adhering to my speech than usually is the case 
with foreigners who have commenced to speak it 
as late in life as I did. I do not say this vauntingly, 
for I do not consider this accomplishment in itself 
as of a very high order; but I say it to vindicate my 
claim that I have discovered the principles on which 
the production of language is based, and offer my 
personal pronunciation of the English language to 
which these principles have been applied as a proof 
that I have done so. I am still learning, however, 
for it takes time and practice and a great deal of 
patience to dislodge the old habit from its wonted 
haunts and to assign its quarters to a foreign guest. 
My old familiar dwelling has thus become a lodging 
for the English language, though I can return to it 
at will with my old and dearly beloved mother 
tongue and be comfortable therein. 

The foreign guest, however, who came to dwell 
therein, does not use my native home, in his mode 
of entering it or going forth from it, in the old 



1 1 2 Duality of Voice 

familiar way, nor does he use the same apartments 
for the same purposes. He enters at the back gate 
while I used to enter at the front ; he leaves it at 
the front gate while I left at the back. He opens 
his shutters to the east, while I used to look out 
from the west, etc. Such differences as these in 
our mode of breathing exist throughout the entire 
length and breadth of both languages. The sounds 
we have imbibed in our early youth, however, will 
always be more familiar and nearer to us and dearer 
than those of any other language, no matter how 
closely the latter may enter into our lives and our 
being at a later period. 

NATIONAL TRAITS OF CHARACTER 

What constitutes a given number of people a 
nation, besides their history, their political organiza- 
tion, and the geographical position of their territory? 
What makes every member belonging to a nation, 
whether he lives within its territory or has emigrated 
therefrom, a different being from every member of 
any other nation ? What makes each member of a 
nation resemble every other member thereof, not 
only in regard to vocal expression but also in regard 
to general cast of features, build of body, move- 
ments, gesticulations, etc., and in what may be 
summed up as national traits of character ? 

No one will deny the fact that such differences 
exist, as between Germans, Frenchmen, and Eng- 
lishmen, for instance. This difference is not racial, 
as they all belong to the Caucasian race. It can 
scarcely be climatic with nations whose territory is 



National Traits of Character 113 

adjacent to each other; nor is it likely to be re- 
ligious, historical, or political. There is nothing 
very decidedly different in the situation and com- 
position of these various nations and the individuals 
of which they are composed, except their language. 
I maintain that language is not only the main 
point of difference, but that it is the cause and 
origin of all other main points of difference. As 
language is the main gift which distinguishes men 
from animals, so it is also the principal distinguish- 
ing mark as between one nation and another. I 
maintain, and expect to prove, that the language — 
that is, any specific language — acquired in childhood 
becomes an integral part of a person's organization, 
as positively so as any of his other natural faculties: 
and that he cannot change it, that is, in an idiomati- 
cally correct manner y without changing, to some 
extent, the drift of his entire organism. As soon 
as I began to succeed in speaking the English 
language as it is spoken in this country, idiomati- 
cally correct, I changed my nature, to some extent, 
from that of a German to that of an American ; nor 
is it possible to learn to speak any language idio- 
matically correct without undergoing a similar 
change. Not alone my mode of vocal expression, 
but my motions, my habits, nay, my very features, 
yes, even my way of thinking, in some respects, have 
been subjected to such a change ; modified, of course, 
by heredity, previous habits, and the constant rever- 
sion of all this by the frequent recurrence to my 
native tongue. In using the term "idiomatically 
correct' ' I mean of course that mode of expression 



1 14 Duality of Voice 

which is peculiar to a language, its general cast, and 
which is representative of its genius and spirit. 

To what do I attribute so powerful an influence ? 

It is not easy to say this comprehensively in a 
few words. I will say this much, however: That, 
language being the outcome of streams of the vital 
fluid passing into and out of our composition in a 
systematic manner, each system varying with every 
other system, our vital organs are differently affected, 
in conformity with the manner and the rotation in 
which these streams reach these different organs; 
in other words, in conformity with the manner in 
which we breathe for our language. This influence 
is not confined to the vocal expression of a nation. It 
is influential with and extends to the special mode 
of vocal expression in separate districts, provinces, 
localities, and cities; nay, it extends to families and 
single members belonging to such families, each 
separate member's expression being the product of 
his special mode of breathing, and differing in some 
respects from that of every other member of the 
same family; such difference in the mode of breathing 
being the reflection of every individual soul. 

The bent of the soul in individual cases deter- 
mines the flow of these streams, the same as the 
bent of the national soul determines the same for 
the entire nation. Or, which perhaps would be 
more correct, the flow of these streams determines 
the bent of the individual as well as national soul. 
The influence being reciprocal, it would be difficult 
to state, as it is with all matters of this kind, which 
preponderates, which gives the first impulse. It is 



National Traits of Character 115 

of the same order as the old question (never to 
be solved) aptly expressed in the homely query, 
" Which was created first, the hen or the egg ? " 

It is interesting to note the manner in which the 
vital streams affecting the character of the two peo- 
ples in regard to whom I have had the opportunity 
for many years of making my observations, the 
Anglo-Saxon and the German, take their course. 
With the former the point of gravitation is located 
in the abdomen ; with the latter in the thorax. 

This gives the Anglo-Saxon a circuitous route for 
his expression in coming to the surface; his mode 
of respiration being the following: 

He inspires into the thorax posteriorly, next into 
the abdomen anteriorly. He then expires from the 
abdomen posteriorly, and from the thorax anterior- 
ly; vocal expression accompanying the last move- 
ment. 

A German's mode of respiration is as follows: He 
inspires into the abdomen posteriorly, expiring from 
the abdomen anteriorly ; he then inspires into the 
thorax anteriorly and expires from the same pos- 
teriorly, the latter movement only being accom- 
panied by sound. You will notice that in the 
former case the breath to be expired and to be ac- 
companied by sound has been held in the thorax 
until the abdomen has gone through an inspiration 
and an expiration ; while with Germans, inspiration 
into the abdomen as well as into the thorax are suc- 
ceeded by expiration from the same, a direct pro- 
ceeding as against the indirect of the Anglo-Saxon. 
Thus the former secures a force reserved and held 



1 16 Duality of Voice 

and to be drawn upon as it is needed, while the 
latter pours forth his vital force in a continuous 
stream as soon as it is engendered. 

The point of gravitation determines the mode of 
breathing and the production of vocal utterance. 
With Anglo-Saxons, the point of gravitation being 
located in the abdomen, their speech tends from 
below, upward ; with Germans, the point of gravita- 
tion being located in the thorax, their speech tends 
from above, downward. The direction of Anglo- 
Saxon expression is from the abdomen, where it has 
its root, to the thorax; that of the German is from 
the thorax, where it has its root, to the abdomen. 
It will scarcely be necessary for me to say to the 
reader, over and over again, " Try this," " Try 
that"; I wish it to be understood, once for all, 
that this recommendation is to be tacitly implied as 
accompanying every statement, every proposition, 
every assertion I make. Personally I can go through 
any one and all of the performances at any time and 
at a moment's notice. In making these experiments, 
speak or sing after breathing in the prescribed man- 
ner. The prescribed manner being the one in which 
the impression is made and from which the expres- 
sion is produced as a matter of course and of neces- 
sity. An Anglo-Saxon will not be able to utter a 
word spoken or sung in his language after breathing 
in the German fashion, nor will a German be able to 
do so in his language after breathing in the Anglo- 
Saxon manner. Change either manner of breathing 
but in the least, and you will not be able to express 
yourself in either German or English; but you 



National Traits of Character 117 

may thus be able to express yourself in some other 
language. It is, of course, understood that we 
breathe into the abdomen through the oesophagus, 
into the thorax through the trachea. 

In trying propositions like the one now under 
consideration, it may not be easy for persons who 
have not previously given any thought to mat- 
ters of this kind to successfully try them. You 
must give yourself up to these things, must be at 
home for them only, for a period at least, until you 
have become thoroughly engrossed with them. It 
is not a study to be superficially attained. You 
must enter into it with your whole soul, your entire 
being. If you do, you will eventually become as 
familiar with the principles underlying these matters 
as you are with the letters of the alphabet, or the 
figures representing the numerals, and be able to 
apply the same in as easy a manner and for as 
various purposes as you do these. 

Their indirect mode of breathing of Anglo-Sax- 
ons produces a deliberate mode of speech; while 
German breathing, being direct, produces a speech 
as rapid in its formation as in its utterance. Action 
being the counterpoise of speech, is of the inverse order 
of the latter. English speech being slow and deliberate, 
English action is rapid and direct ; German speech be- 
ing rapid and direct , German action is slow and deliber- 
ate. English character, the same as English speech, 
is distinguished by patience and forbearance ; these, 
when finally exhausted, are succeeded by sudden 
and violent outbreaks. German character, the same 
as German speech, is alternately exuberant and de- 



1 1 8 Duality of Voice 

pressed ; contented, but also of a disposition to find 
fault whenever the occasion may arise. 

Anglo-Saxons, in consequence of their indirect 
mode of expression, are in possession of a reserve 
force always at their command, but only called upon 
on special occasions; hence long-continued forbear- 
ance, and then — a blow for liberty. With Germans, 
in consequence of their direct mode of expression, 
their vital force is continuously being engendered, 
and as continuously being exhausted. Hence, they 
are in the habit of constantly protesting, and as 
constantly submitting to the status quo. 

The character of Anglo-Saxons, in viewing things 
from a practical standpoint, is as far removed from 
the ideal as it is from the pessimistic. It is neither 
exuberant, overstrained, exalted, nor despondent; 
but cool, well balanced, and matter-of-fact. It is 
not like the German : 

" Himmelhoch jauchzen, zu Tode betruebt." 
(" Raised to the sky with delight ; 
Depressed to the ground with despair.") 

A German is influenced according to whether he can 
or cannot, while losing sight of the real, satisfy his 
craving for the ideal, for which, in his direct and im- 
pulsive nature, he is constantly yearning; which the 
Anglo-Saxon, seeing it is beyond his reach, aban- 
dons as impracticable. 

To comprehend the ideal of whatsoever nature, 
the German, with endless patience, tries to solve the 
most complicated problems; after solving them he 
is often satisfied with the result in the abstract ; while 



National Traits of Character 119 

the practical Anglo-Saxon uses this result for his 
utilitarian purposes. The philosophical German 
patiently unravels a Gordian knot; the practical 
Anglo-Saxon, " Alexander-like, cuts it in two with 
his sword' ' (" Wie Alexander haut ihn auseinan- 
der"). Germans love education for its own sake; 
it makes of them superior beings, giving them treas- 
ures more highly prized than any others, and far 
more lasting. Anglo-Saxons, on the other hand, 
get their education for a purpose, and with a view 
to their worldly advancement. While with Ger- 
mans education is " Selbstzweck " (its reward con- 
sisting in its possession), with Anglo-Saxons its 
reward consists in its application. The question so 
often agitated in this country, whether a university 
education may or may not be of benefit (that is, in 
furthering his worldly advancement) to any one not 
intending to embrace one of the learned professions, 
would never arise in Germany ; practical value and 
education being things apart, the latter taking first 
rank always and never being subordinated to the 
former. 

Schiller says : 

" [Der Edle] legt das Hohe in das Leben, 
Doch er sucht est nicht darin." 
(" [Our aim should be] the noble to inculcate into life, 
And not to search for it therein. ") 

I am inclined to think that the opposite of this is 
the usual tendency with Anglo-Saxons. 

Many other causes might be cited, many other 



120 Duality of Voice 

results. These, however, must answer the present 
purpose, which is, to show that the course taken by 
the vital streams in breathing, besides affecting their 
speech, affects the character of nations. 

All this might be summed up in saying: The 
point of gravitation with Anglo-Saxons being located 
in the abdomen, which represents the material side 
of life, their being is primarily rooted in the material, 
and reaches the ideal by way of the material. The 
German, on the other hand, having his point of 
gravitation in the thorax, which represents the 
spiritual part of our existence, reaches the material 
by way of the ideal, in which his being is primarily 
rooted. 

I owe the reader an apology for anticipating in 
using the terms " streams of life " and " the point of 
gravitation. ' ' These are not words without a definite 
meaning, however; on the contrary, they are of the 
greatest significance and of a very definite meaning. 
Still, I must tax his patience for a proper explana- 
tion thereof till I shall be able to reach them in due 
course of time. We cannot approach the steep crest 
of a hill by a straight line of ascent, but must pa- 
tiently wind around and around its circumference to 
be able to finally reach its summit. 

THE AMERICAN NATION 

It will require but a single example, familiar to 
all, to still more forcibly show that it is language 
through whose agency national traits of character 
and physical development are produced. How do 
you suppose that the wonder has been wrought, and 



The American Nation 121 

is still daily being worked, of the great mass of 
humanity reaching these shores from foreign lands 
being merged into one homogeneous nation ? The 
remark is often made that "it is the climate/' If 
it were the climate, or other conditions specifically 
belonging to this country, how is it that foreigners 
coming here at maturity always remain foreigners, 
while their offspring born and bred here become 
Americans ? Even children born elsewhere, but 
coming here at an early age, soon become " Ameri- 
canized,' ' while their parents remain foreigners 
always. These children must have taken a potent 
draught, not partaken of by their parents, to not 
only change their mode of vocal but also of physi- 
cal expression ; nay, the vital expression of their 
entire being. That draught is the English lan- 
guage. Most foreigners respectively married to an 
American wife or husband, and rearing a family of 
American children, remain foreigners to the end of 
their lives. 

It often happens that parents of foreign birth 
cannot comprehend the character and actions of 
their own children, who are so different, being super- 
ficial and frivolous, where they are deep and sound ; 
cool and calculating where they are fire and flame. 
Yet these children possess sterling qualities of 
another kind which their parents do not possess. 

I call to mind two brothers, sons of German 
parents, born in this country. With the eldest- 
born the German influence was potent. He was 
made to speak German at home and at school, and 
is to-day, though married to an American, more 



122 Duality of Voice 

German in his manner and appearance than Ameri- 
can, while his mode of speaking the English lan- 
guage also has something " German" in it. His 
brother, on the other hand, more particularly reared 
under native influences, is a thorough American. 
There was nothing in this case but the influence of 
language which could have caused this difference. 
Similar examples might be cited endlessly. 

If language is capable of exercising so powerful an 
influence it must be more than a superficial acquire- 
ment. It must be woven into and interwoven with 
our innermost nature. What is there in the English 
language to make a German's broad and massive 
forehead, high cheek-bones, full lips, short chin, and 
round face, in his offspring sink into narrow forms 
and long, oval lines ? What makes the lower jaw, 
which in him was short and round, in these children 
sink down and extend outward, while the upper jaw 
recedes back ? What is it that makes the jovial and 
happy expression of the German in his children 
change into features of an impassive nature, from 
which they are only roused when in action? — features 
of which it has been said that it is sometimes diffi- 
cult to know whether they, sphinx-like, cover a happy 
or unhappy disposition ; a disposition sometimes so 
self-possessed and reserved that its owner might 
almost reply as Alva did, when asked why he never 
smiled : " I would not so demean myself before my- 
self as to smile. Yet when such a face (especially 
when it is a girl's) does smile, its passive features 
are lighted up in a manner so enchanting that its 
beauty amply compensates for its previous apathy. 



The American Nation 123 

I do not wish to say, however, that Anglo-Saxons 
do not feel either joy or sorrow as keenly as Ger- 
mans do (though I have my doubts even on this 
score); but they do not carry their feelings with 
them on the surface. They sink them into that 
reserve, at once proud and self-possessed, which does 
not wish others to take cognizance of their private 
affairs. The nature of the Anglo-Saxon is one 
of reserve, that of the German one of abandon and 
laisser-aller. This is not due to heredity in the first 
instance, but to the influence of language, by which 
character and habits are formed. 

Dr. Holmes relates that, after a protracted search 
for his son, who had been wounded in the battle of 
Gettysburg, when at last finding the " Captain ' 
in a transport train, he went up to him, simply say- 
ing, " How are you, Bob ?" and he replying, " How 
are you, Dad ? " — stating at the same time, '* Such 
is the force of our national habit that, especially 
in the presence of strangers, we suppress the im- 
pulse of our most ardent feelings/' or words to that 
effect. A similar proceeding under such circum- 
stances would be considered " unnatural" among 
Germans. 

Regarding the change of features, as between 
foreign-born (German) parents and their English- 
speaking offspring, by which the latter's assume a 
shape which makes the oesophagus predominate 
over the trachea, it will be as impossible for these 
children to speak idiomatically correct German as it 
is for their parents, with whom the trachea predom- 
inates over the oesophagus, to speak idiomatically 



124 Duality of Voice 

correct English. When my features assume the 
proper shape for English speech, I cannot produce 
a single correct German sound, and when they assume 
the proper shape for German speech, it is as impos- 
sible for me to produce a correct English sound. 

I expect that this statement will be hotly dis- 
puted. The measure of our ordinary mode of lis- 
tening, however, must not be applied to these 
matters. In some rare instances the difference is 
so slight that it takes a very acute ear to notice it. 

CENTRIPETAL AND CENTRIFUGAL 

While speaking our native tongue our muscles 
move, our sinews tend, our vessels lean, our blood 
throbs, and our nerves tingle with the essence of our 
language in its direction, and not in the direction 
of any other language. We not only speak and 
sing our language, but we gesticulate it, we walk it, 
dance it, write it, think it, smile it, and sorrow in 
it. Everything we do is done differently from the 
same thing done by a person speaking another lan- 
guage. The movements of the muscles of a German 
are centripetal, while those of an Anglo-Saxon are 
centrifugal. With a German they close in around 
the mouth; with an Anglo-Saxon they depart from 
the mouth upward and downward. Hence the 
broad features of the German versus the elongated 
ones of the Anglo-Saxon. Look at the old people. 
The centrifugal action with an Anglo-Saxon even in 
old age still leaves his form erect, his face serene, 
scarcely showing a wrinkle, either on his forehead, 
his cheeks, or around the eyes and mouth. Apart 



Centripetal and Centrifugal 125 

from his bleached hair, he frequently retains a quite 
youthful appearance. The centripetal action with 
a German in old age, on the other hand, has a ten- 
dency to bend his form and draw it together, and to 
shrivel up his skin into innumerable wrinkles, so that 
his mouth often resembles the mouth of a purse 
drawn close together. This youthful appearance 
with aged English-speaking people reflects on their 
customs and their costume, which latter retains 
much of the tidiness of their younger days. Ger- 
mans, on the other hand, age soon. This fact is so 
apparent that they conform their habits and general 
appearance to their age. They feel old, and un- 
hesitatingly submit to their aged condition. They 
often appear old when still comparatively young. 
English-speaking old people, on the other hand, are 
never too old not to wish to appear young. For 
the terms " Greis" and " Greisin," which imply a 
weakened and somewhat helpless condition, there is 
no corresponding expression in the English lan- 
guage. 

Observe a gang of laborers carrying a heavy log. 
If there are Germans among them, their heads and 
shoulders will be bent, as well as their knees, re- 
sembling caryatides in Gothic churches. They carry 
from below, npzvard. Those who speak English, on 
the other hand, will walk with heads erect, straight 
shoulders, and stiff knees, resembling the caryatides 
of the Greek temples. They carry from above, 
doivnward. 

The German mode of expression is produced by 
contraction, expansion, contraction ; the English 



126 Duality of Voice 

by expansion, contraction, expansion. For the 
former, contraction takes place towards the dia- 
phragm, first upward and then downward ; that is, 
from the feet upward, and then from the head 
downward. For the latter, expansion takes place 
from the diaphragm, first upward and then down- 
ward ; that is, from the diaphragm towards the head, 
and then from the diaphragm towards the feet. 

Artists must study these things if they want to 
get a proper insight into life, and the action of 
life, characteristic of different nations. The simple 
study of anatomy gives them no clue to these 
matters. Everything we do is done differently 
from the same thing being done by a person speak- 
ing another language. The books on physiology 
do not make mention of these matters. They 
treat all nations alike. They tell an Englishman 
that in closing his mouth the muscles of the up- 
per lip by a direct action are first raised and then 
lowered, while those of the lower are first lowered 
and then raised. As a matter of fact, the natural 
tendency with English-speaking people is towards 
having their mouths open. In closing the same the 
lower lip is first raised, then lowered, the upper is 
first lowered, then raised, and again lowered ; where- 
upon the lower lip is raised. This gives three 
movements to each lip. The natural tendency with 
Germans is towards keeping their mouths closed. 
To firmly close the same they must raise the upper 
lip, lower the lower, lower the upper, and then raise 
the lower. This gives two movements to each lip. 
These motions are indirect with Anglo-Saxons, with 



Centripetal and Centrifugal 127 

Germans they are direct. With Anglo-Saxons the 
lower jaw is the main instrument ; with Germans it 
is the upper. With Anglo-Saxons the lower moves 
up to the upper; while with Germans the upper 
closes down on the lower. That Anglo-Saxons 
move their lower jaw up to the upper, to them will 
appear as a matter of course ; yet Germans do not do 
this ; with them the lower jaw is first raised to be in 
position to be met by the upper, the latter being 
lowered from the atlas by motions made by the entire 
upper part of the head. 

During speech the head of an Anglo-Saxon re- 
mains impassive ; there is no perceptible movement 
except in connection with his lower jaw. Hence 
his stolid immovability in contradistinction with the 
mobility and vivacity of a German, whose entire 
head, often accompanied by his entire body, ap- 
pears to take part in his speech. These motions, 
though fundamental with these peoples, vary with 
locality, individual character, temperament, etc. A 
German if he keeps his cranium entirely still will 
be unable to produce a sound; while an Anglo- 
Saxon will be unable to produce a sound if he should 
move it as Germans do. A German's power of 
vocal utterance lies in the flexibility of his cranium ; 
an Anglo-Saxon's in that of his lower jaw. 

An Anglo-Saxon grinds the teeth of his lower 
jaw, in anger or in passion, or while masticating 
food, or under any other circumstances, against those 
of his upper; a German grinds those of his upper 
jaw against those of the lower. 

All motions in connection with vocal utterance on 



128 Duality of Voice 

the part of an Anglo-Saxon are of a decidedly larger 
compass than those of a German ; the latter being 
confined to the slight motions he is able to make 
with his head, while the former frequently draws 
down his lower jaw to a very great extent, far more 
so than a German would be able to draw down his. 

The " life " with the German is in the upper, with 
Anglo-Saxons it is in the lower jaw; the former 
representing the thorax, the latter the abdomen. 
While the thorax, as already mentioned, with Ger- 
mans is the predominating vehicle for every perform- 
ance of life, with Anglo-Saxons it is the abdomen. 

With Germans the lower jaw is the anvil, the 
upper the hammer; with Anglo-Saxons the upper is 
the anvil, the lower the hammer; the action, the 
life, always being with the hammer. 

If you watch an American girl chewing taffy you 
will find her lower jaw going way down, then out, 
and up again. This is characteristic of the manner 
in which Anglo-Saxons breathe and speak. The 
chewing process, owing to the adhesion of the taffy 
to the teeth, together with the greater flexibility of 
a girl's jaws, brings out these features more strik- 
ingly than under ordinary circumstances. In chew- 
ing taffy the lower jaw (the hammer) meets with 
some difficulty in making its movements; it is 
therefore lowered as much as possible, so as to be 
able to more effectually close in with the upper (the 
anvil). A German girl's movements under similar 
conditions are restricted, being largely confined to 
the upper jaw, which cannot be raised to any great 
extent. 



Centripetal and Centrifugal 129 

An Anglo-Saxon speaker or singer makes move- 
ments similar to such a chewer of taffy. He draws 
his lower jaw down and out to make room in the 
lower cavity of his mouth for the expression of his 
main sounds. These are the product of the ab- 
dominal cavity and find their way out through the 
oesophagus from beneath the lower surface of the 
tongue. Here they pass the replica and the frae- 
num, which impart to them their rhythmical expres- 
sion. Any one doubting the correctness of these 
statements, by making the replica and the fraenum, 
or either of them, rigid, will not, if he is an Anglo- 
Saxon, be able to produce a single sound ; if he is a 
German, he will still be able to utter his main sounds 
coming to the surface through the trachea, over and 
above his tongue. An Anglo-Saxon, on the other 
hand, may still speak when he makes the vocal cords 
of the larynx rigid; while a German in that case 
will be unable to produce any sound whatsoever. 
To these matters I have already called attention in 
a previous publication, in connection with the man 
who was deprived of his larynx by a surgical opera- 
tion, but not of his power of speech. 

A similar experiment may be made in regard to 
breathing. By making the soft palate, representing 
the thorax, rigid, you will not be able to inspire, 
though you may expire. By making the bottom 
of the mouth close to your teeth {the soft palate of 
the lower jaw), representing the abdomen, rigid, you 
will not be able to expire, though you may inspire. 
With a German the precisely opposite facts prevail. 
By making the soft palate rigid, he will stop expira- 



i3° Duality of Voice 

tion ; by making the bottom of the mouth close to 
the teeth rigid, he will stop inspiration. 

During vocal utterance, with Germans every su- 
perior muscle first moves downward, every inferior 
upward ; while with Anglo-Saxons every superior 
muscle first moves upward, every inferior downward. 
This is preparatory and previous to action. Daring 
action the German opens his mouth, the Anglo- 
Saxon closes his. Hence the Anglo-Saxon's half- 
open mouth while in repose, and his almost stern 
expression while in action, pleasurable action even, 
which has provoked the witty saying that " Eng- 
lishmen take to their pleasures sadly." 

The abdomen being the centre of gravity for Eng- 
lish speech, and the lower jaw being in direct com- 
munication with the same by way of the oesophagus, 
by making the lower jaw rigid you stop the flow of 
English sounds. The thorax, on the other hand, 
being the centre of gravity for German speech, and 
the upper jaw being in direct communication with 
the same by way of the trachea, in making this jaw 
rigid you stop the flow of German sounds. 

ROTATION OF CENTRIPETAL AND CENTRIFUGAL 

ACTION 

Speaking of centripetal and centrifugal motion as 
separate actions, there must, of course, be a rotation 
of these actions to produce a complete action of any 
kind. We, however, speak of the one which pre- 
vails over the other, as the action under considera- 
tion. Thus when I say a German's mode of eating 
is centripetal, I say so because the action of his jaws 



Centripetal and Centrifugal Action 131 

being direct, it is first centrifugal, then centripetal, 
then centrifugal, then again centripetal. When I 
say an Anglo-Saxon's mode is centrifugal, I say so 
because the action of his jaws being indirect, it is 
first centripetal, then centrifugal, then centripetal, 
then again centrifugal, and finally once more cen- 
tripetal. This, with a German, of course, means: 
Open, close, open, close. With an Anglo-Saxon it 
means: Close, open, close, open, close. This, how- 
ever, only gives the main features of an act of eat- 
ing, etc., as well as uttering sounds ; any of these acts, 
in reality, requiring eight movements to carry on 
one complete act. When centrifugal prevails centrip- 
etal follows, and when centripetal prevails cen- 
trifugal follows. It stands to reason that an action 
which is composed of open, close, open, close, or 
close, open, close, open, close, cannot continue in 
the same rotation indefinitely, but must be comple- 
mented by a motion of the opposite nature; such 
complementary action, however, always being exe- 
cuted inwardly and not outwardly. While the 
action of the jaws just now described precedes 
mastication, the inner action complementary thereof 
is accompanied by the act of swallowing. 

Thus with a German there are four movements 
preceding mastication and four for swallowing; with 
an Anglo-Saxon there are five movements for the 
former and three for the latter; while the act of 
mastication proper with both nations consists of 
eight movements which are repeated as often as is 
necessary for the act of swallowing. 

The respective manner in which knives and forks 



13 2 Duality of Voice 

are handled in eating by Germans and Anglo-Saxons, 
as well as the different manner in which they dance, 
and the characters they use in writing, might be 
cited as results of the different modes in which cen- 
tripetal and centrifugal actions prevail with them. 
The characters Germans use in writing being cen- 
trifugal in their nature and those Anglo-Saxons use 
centripetal, this can only be accounted for by assum- 
ing that the muscular action preparatory to the act 
of writing in both instances is of the opposite nature. 

In consequence of the centrifugal movements of 
their jaws and lips, the teeth, with English-speaking 
persons, are always on exhibition ; while the centrip- 
etal movement prevailing with Germans conceals 
them. The consequence is that English-speaking 
people pay the utmost attention to the care and 
perfection of their teeth, while Germans, in the 
highest ranks even, frequently neglect them to an 
almost shameful degree. The direct outcome of 
this state of affairs is the great advancement which 
the practice of dentistry has made in this country 
and in England, while it is one to which, on the con- 
tinent of Europe, but comparatively little attention 
is being paid. 

With English-speaking people, especially the 
women, whose lips are more flexible than men's, 
the teeth of the upper jaw are more frequently ex- 
posed than those of the lower, for this reason : The 
oesophagus being the main instrument for English 
speech, its sounds, in coming to the surface from 
beneath the tongue, require the latter to remain in 
a semi-raised position most of the time; the upper 



Centripetal and Centrifugal Action 133 

lip, being in the way of these sounds coming to the 
surface, must be raised for the same reason ; in so 
doing it exposes the upper row of teeth. The lower 
lip is lowered for the sounds of the trachea for the 
same reason that the upper is raised for those of the 
oesophagus. Whenever the upper lip is raised 
the lower must be immediately lowered, and vice 
versa. With Anglo-Saxons the main movement is 
with the upper, with Germans it is with the lower 
lip. Owing to the centripetal action with Germans, 
these movements are less pronounced than they are 
with English-speaking people. 

The act of smiling being produced in the same 
order as that of speaking, the same conditions pre- 
vail in relation to the same. 

In speaking English you can " feel ' that the 
upper lip is the main vehicle ; it has all the life in it. 
In speaking German you can " feel " it is the lower, 
which for that language possesses the life. If you 
make the former rigid you cannot speak English ; if 
you make the latter rigid you cannot speak German. 

In connection with the movements of the lips it 
will be noticed that while the upper jaw and the roof 
of the mouth are dominated by the trachea and 
the thorax, and the lower jaw and the bottom of the 
mouth by the oesophagus and the abdomen, the 
upper lip is dominated by the sounds of the oeso- 
phagus, and the lower by those of the trachea. 
This, however, is owing to mechanical reasons only, 
as explained, and not to vital causes. 

The foreigner who learns to speak the English 
language ever so well, though he may reside here 



134 Duality of Voice 

almost a lifetime, if he does not learn to speak it 
idiomatically correct, will not be influenced by it to 
any great extent in any of the various manners of 
which I have made mention, either as regards his 
features, character, habits, motions, thoughts, etc. ; 
but, in spite of his " English/' he will still be a 
foreigner. This foreigner's children, however, pro- 
vided he does not influence them to the contrary 
through pride of his native tongue, and if reared 
under native influences, will become thorough 
Americans. 

There need be no fear, therefore, that immigra- 
tion might bring to this country a permanent for- 
eign element. Such elements, when they do come, 
are of a passing nature. Their offspring, in passing 
the crucial test of the English tongue, sink the for- 
eigner into the all-absorbing element of the English 
idiom ; and in so doing are merged into and become 
an integral part of the people of this country. They 
may come of whatever nation, from whatever land ; 
no matter how they may appear, act, or speak, the 
English idiom will continue to make them Ameri- 
cans, in their children at least, in the future as it 
has in the past. There is thus in the centrifugal 
force which dominates the speech of Anglo-Saxons 
that which is a safeguard to the homogeneity as well 
as the institutions of this nation. 

An Anglo-Saxon cannot be a bondsman ; his lan- 
guage forbids it. The centrifugal force which pre- 
vails with him does not permit fetters. The children 
of all foreigners born here and speaking the English 
language come under its spell. If language did not 



Centripetal and Centrifugal Action 135 

have this supreme influence, there is no other in- 
fluence that would have prevented this country long 
ago from having become inhabited in special districts 
with permanent groups of people foreign to its aims 
and institutions, and alien to its genius, its charac- 
ter, and its customs. In districts where German is 
spoken as the principal language, as in some parts 
of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, it is not, with the 
native-born at least, the pure German language, but 
its idiomatic expression is that of the English tongue. 

People say, " It is the climate.' ' We have every 
climate under the sun ; yet in all that is essential 
the man from Maine is as thoroughly American as 
the one from Texas ; the gold-digger in the frozen 
regions of the Yukon as the man of the orange- 
groves of Florida or California ; the American fisher- 
man on the Banks of Newfoundland as those on the 
Gulf of Mexico; the man who battles on the plains 
against the Indians as he who serves under the ban- 
ner of the Republic and upholds its glory in foreign 
lands and seas. You can tell an American the mo- 
ment you look at him. Yet if you ask some of them 
where their parents were born, you will hear strange 
tales of lands and peoples across the sea and far 
away. 

Language does not work every wonder, of course. 
The influence of heredity perpetuates that of lan- 
guage; but the latter is the primary influence. Nor 
can it be denied that every foreigner living here for 
some time, whether he has learned to speak English 
or not, will, to some extent at least, be influenced 
by the habits, customs, institutions, climate, and 



13 6 Duality of Voice 

language of this country. This does not detract, 
however, from the force of my argument regarding 
language and its influence as the most vital force in 
shaping a people's characteristic traits, physically as 
well as spiritually. 

There has been of late a great deal of talk and en- 
thusiasm even regarding the desirability of a closer 
alliance between the two great English-speaking na- 
tions; their natural affinity and kinship. This affin- 
ity, this belonging together, this being of one family 
and one stock, is commonly expressed by this term, 
" English-speaking peoples/' That which I have 
endeavored to explain at length is thus tacitly ac- 
knowledged to be correct through the use of this 
term, which implies that it is the English tongue 
which makes these peoples one in sentiment, in feel- 
ing, in their aims and purposes, as it makes them 
one in their physical appearance, their motions, the 
exercise of their faculties and functions, etc. 




NATIONALITY AND RACE DISTINCTIONS 



WHILE the English language makes Americans 
of all foreigners, it does not, of course, ob- 
literate race distinctions as long as races continue to 
exist as such. Persons of alien races, nevertheless, 
when born in this country and reared under native 
influences, will become " American " in a truer sense 
than foreigners belonging to the Caucasian race com- 
ing here at maturity. I dare say Frederick Douglass 
was truly more of an American, in all this word im- 
plies, than any foreigner who ever came to live here ; 
and so are all the better classes of native-born negroes, 
in a certain sense, more truly American, this inde- 
scribable something which constitutes a nation, than 
any aliens whosoever. 

A gentleman once told me that, travelling on a 
steamboat on one of the New England rivers, he had 
been inadvertently listening to a conversation car- 
ried on behind him, between what seemed to be 
two New England farmers. On rising from his 
seat, he saw that one of the men was a Chinaman, 
dressed like the other and conversing precisely as 
he did. 

Seeing an acquaintance, he pointed out the China- 
man and asked if he knew who he was. 

137 



138 Duality of Voice 

" That 's Jimmy O'Connor; he 's from So-and- 

y t 

SO. 

I mean the Chinaman/ ' 

*' Yes, the Chinaman; that 's him. You know 
he was picked up at sea, when still a baby, by a 
New Bedford whaler, and was brought up in the 
captain's family, who adopted him. He 's as good 
a farmer and as true an American as you can find 
anywhere/' 

These studies are meant to be purely objective, 
and have no concern with politics or policies, regard- 
ing undesirable immigration, or issues of a similar 
nature. But language is nationality, and nationality 
language, always, in the first instance; and the purer 
a language is spoken, the truer, purer, and better 
such nationality will be expressed and represented 
by those who thus speak it. What an incentive to 
aim at the purest and best expression of language, 
for any people! But it will be said that language 
is subject to change. If it is, so will the people who 
speak it to some extent change with it. Such change, 
however, is in its dress, in words mainly ; rarely and 
at long intervals, and under very peculiar circum- 
stances only, in its expression. As a matter of fact, 
I doubt whether a change of the idiomatic expi'ession 
ever takes place. 

The difference existing between the English 
spoken in the United States and the mother country 
might be cited as an example. The idiomatic ex- 
pression is precisely the same. But the necessary 
self-reliance of the first settlers, the privation, the 
barter and exchange, the vast extent of the territory 



Nationality and Race Distinctions 139 

of this country, the greater independence enjoyed 
by its people, etc., might be named as reasons for 
the greater dash and freedom, together with a pos- 
sible want of culture, as compared with the language 
spoken by educated Englishmen, prevailing in its 
utterance. 

The same influences prevail regarding the general 
appearance, motions, and characteristic traits of 
these respective nations. Though closely allied and 
connected in a specific, and very nearly allied to 
each other in a general sense, there is that which 
distinguishes the English of the old world from 
those of the new, and which can be easily recog- 
nized. 

Being centrifugal, the English idiom, octopus- 
like, embraces anything and everything that comes 
within the radius of its omnivorous capacity, with- 
out, however, losing its original character. It is 
like a fisherman who has hung out his net in the 
ocean, taking in all that comes along; or like .the 
sea itself, greedy without end. It has no scruples 
about roots and construction, but construes every- 
thing according to its wants and adapts it to its uses 
as it comes along from any quarter. 

These adopted children, these waifs, however, it 
must not be lost sight of, before they become in- 
tegral parts of English speech must submit to a 
change of their original idiomatic expression. No 
matter who came — Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, 
or French — the people of the British Islands, while 
adopting their terms of expression, remained true to 
their original idiomatic expression. As this country 



i4° Duality of Voice 

absorbs people from the whole world and makes one 
homogeneous American nation of them, so has the 
English language absorbed, and is still absorbing, 
words from every other people's language, and has 
transformed them into one homogeneous language 
of its own. 

Comparative philology, if it wants to accomplish 
that which would be most worthy of its efforts, will 
have to come down to these strong and basic roots 
of language. 

The German language, whose idiomatic expression 
is centripetal, on the other hand, does not possess 
the same capacity for adopting foreign words and 
adapting them to its idiom. When it does adopt 
them, as, for instance, those of French origin, they 
are pronounced, not in the German, but, as far as 
the German people are capable of so doing, in the 
French manner. They could not, in fact, be pro- 
nounced in the German manner, the German lan- 
guage being a close corporation, so to say, which does 
not admit of any foreign shareholders; while the 
English language is a company open to all comers. 
While it is the endeavor of Germans to purify their 
language by expelling as far as possible any foreign 
word and element therefrom, Anglo-Saxons are con- 
stantly adopting new words from foreign languages. 
It would be equal to the labor of Sisyphus for Anglo- 
Saxons to endeavor to purify their language from 
foreign words, in the same sense that Germans are 
attempting to purify theirs. 

It appears to me that the capacity of England for 
successful colonization is largely due to the centrif- 



Idiomatic Expression 141 

ugal force inherent in its language, while the want 
of success of Germany for the same purpose is due 
to the absence of this force. Anglo-Saxon govern- 
ment tends toward decentralization, German toward 
centralization. I say this in spite of the fact that 
Germany is still divided into many principalities; 
the fact of its adherence to this undesirable condi- 
tion being a proof of the correctness of this assertion 
rather than otherwise — Germans not being able to 
readily get out of that in which they are once rooted. 
In regard to governing peoples in distant territories 
or colonies, this tendency is of importance. Eng- 
lish government, being undemonstrative, is more 
effective than German, which is demonstrative, 
meddlesome, and therefore offensive; the former 
being material and practical, the latter immaterial 
and inclined to be visionary. 

In a word, where are we to find explanations re- 
garding national traits of character except through 
inner motive powers, productive of results individ- 
ual as well as national ? There is no factor which 
exercises an influence upon a nation as a unit so 
wide in extent and of so powerful a nature as that 
of language. It is the only motive power, in fact, 
which every member of a nation shares with every 
other member thereof, but not with any member of 
any foreign nation. 

IDIOMATIC EXPRESSION 

Although it is a well known fact that every lan- 
guage has an idiomatic expression, an intonation of 
its own, I am not aware of any attempt ever having 



i4 2 Duality of Voice 

been made at definitely stating what such expres- 
sion, or intonation, really consists in; and in what 
respect it differs, as between one language and an- 
other. Yet this fact should be the most important 
of all in connection with ethnological studies. It 
is necessary to know what a people's idiomatic ex- 
pression is before we can begin to make a study of 
its language, in comparison with that of any other 
people, by which we may expect to arrive at conclu- 
sions of any real value in an ethnological sense. 

In comparison with idiomatic expression, the 
study of the roots of words and their derivation, it 
appears to me, is of but secondary importance; 
idiomatic expression being the kernel in which the 
tree of national expression had its incipiency, its 
origin. It is the life which pulsates through its 
veins, in which it has its stay and maintenance; the 
nerves which tingle with its intelligence, its genius, 
its soul. Take away this soul, and it ceases to exist. 
For every language there must have been a strong 
impulse making an impression before there could 
have been any expression at all. This impulse must 
have been of so powerful and continuous a nature 
as to have left its impression upon the minds of a 
sufficiently large number of people to form the nu- 
cleus for the expression of a specific language, and, 
in so doing, constituting such people a nation. 

I have already stated that it is motion in the first 
instance which superinduces a specific mode of 
breathing and consequent expression. It is to 
motion, then, that we must ascribe the first impulse. 
Such motion may have been active as to defense 



Idiomatic Expression 143 

against enemies, wild beasts, or the elements; or it 
may have been passive, consisting of the continu- 
ous noise produced by the motion of the sea, tem- 
pests, or thunder-storms, making a great and lasting 
impression. Then, again, the influence may have 
been of a peaceful, balmy, beneficial nature, as with 
people living in security, in a mild climate and on 
fertile lands. The stronger the expression of these 
movements, the stronger the impression they made 
and the more powerful the expression of the lan- 
guage; the softer and more harmonious their ex- 
pression, the softer and the more rhythmical the 
expression of the language. These influences made 
their first impression by superinducing a mode of 
breathing in conformity therewith. 

Thus sounds giving expression to pain, perhaps, 
in the first instance, or to sorrow, joy, surprise, 
etc., were made in conformity with this, their specific 
mode of breathing. These outcries, consisting of 
syllables, grew into words and sentences, which, 
being uttered in conformity and sympathy with their 
special mode of breathing, created a specific idio- 
matic expression. The same process, from its first 
inauguration, and with but slight alterations, has 
been practised and persisted in by the same people 
from the beginning to the present time. With the 
English people, as already mentioned, no migration, 
no invasion, no conqueror, no matter how powerful, 
has been able to swerve it from its path. The most 
these invaders could do was to graft some of the ex- 
pressions in which their ideas were clad, some words, 
on to this aboriginal stem. This stem was so strong 



144 Duality of Voice 

in its primeval conception that it could bear all these 
exotic graftings without losing its character, absorb- 
ing all, welcoming all beneath the widespread roof 
and homestead of its branches. It proved its 
superiority over the idiomatic expression of these 
foreign tongues by its survival, as the fittest. 

[Before proceeding further, I want to remark: 
these studies having been made from an Anglo- 
Saxon point of view, it is just possible that a pre- 
ponderance of observations may have been made on 
that side ; while, if they had been made from a Ger- 
man standpoint, the preponderance most likely 
would be on that side. This, no doubt, will be the 
case should I at any future period be able to write 
all this, as I intend to, in the German language.] 

What is this original sap in the English, and 
what is it in the German language ? 

The aborigines of the British Isles, living apart 
from their continental brethren, became possessed of 
an idiom different and apart from any other. It was 
the idiom of the sea, by which they were surrounded ; 
the motion and commotion of the waves, the surf, 
the incoming and outgoing tides, their undertow 
and overflow ; the waves advancing toward the 
shore, their breaking against it, and their final retreat 
from the same. 

The English language is a raft living upon the 
ocean. You can hear the waters rushing through it 
and on to the shore and back again. You can feel 
the waves rising up to gigantic heights, and then 
falling to and below the level of the sea. You can 
feel the undertow in its reserve force, quiet and 



Idiomatic Expression 145 

subdued like the lull before the storm, yet capable 
of almost any demonstration. You can feel all this 
in the strength and vigor of its diction as expressed 
in its prose and poetry. This is not a mere poetical 
conception, but a truth capable of actual, practical 
demonstration. 

While reading poetry or prose, or while singing, 
fancy seeing in your mind's eye the ocean with its 
waters in commotion, either the open sea or the surf 
near the shore, and you will feel every word you 
utter mi?igle with its waves. These pictures will 
never disturb your fancy y but will associate with it 
in perfect harmony. Now substitute for the picture 
of the ocean and its tumult some rural picture, as 
of a field of grain or the branches of trees tossed by 
the wind, or the flow of a river, or even that of the 
sea itself when perfectly calm. Keep such picture 
before you exactly as you did that of the sea in 
commotion. While reading, speaking, or singing 
English you will not be able to hold such picture; 
it will soon disturb you, and to such an extent that 
you must cease thinking ofit y or be obliged to stop your 
reading, singing, etc. 

The impression made by the ocean, in fact, is so 
great that it dominates the thought and the entire 
being of English-speaking people. This is the case 
to such an extent that if you continue to persistently 
think of any other image than the ocean, even with- 
out uttering any sound whatever, it will so greatly 
perturb you that you will be unable to continue 
thinking at all. You may, on the other hand, con- 
tinue to think for an indefinite period of the image 



146 Duality of Voice 

of the ocean without experiencing any disturbance 
whatever. 

While the basic element of the English language 
is closely affiliated with the ocean, that of the Ger- 
man language is affiliated with the woods, and the 
blowing of the winds. In their habitation in the 
forest, the wind made so deep an impression on the 
primeval inhabitants of Germany that you can feel 
its soughing pervade all German diction. 

If you are a German keep the picture of the 
woods before you and the soughing of the wind 
through the tree-tops, and it will harmonize with 
German thought and diction. Substitute a picture 
of the ocean for it, or almost any other picture, and 
you will not be able to vocally utter German thought, 
nor will you be able to continue thinking in the 
German language at all. 

In place of conjuring up these pictures in your 
mind's eye you can substitute real pictures repre- 
senting these scenes, and while contemplating them 
the effect will be the same. 

After pursuing the picture of the ocean for a 
while, say : " English ; " after pursuing that of the 
woods, say : " Deutsch " ; either will come quite 
naturally, but you cannot reverse them. If you 
attempt it, these words will not be forthcoming. 

While with English diction there is a pause and 
then an emphasis as of the waves coming on and then 
breaking against the shore, so, with German diction, 
there is an emphasis and then a pause, as of the blow- 
ing of the wind succeeded by a calm. These, in a 
word, are the characaeristic elements in the idiomatic 



Idiomatic Expression 147 

expressions of these peoples ; English idiomatic ex- 
pression being low succeeded by loud ; German, loud 
succeeded by low. 

The influence of the ocean with its continuous 
uproar formulated the speech and character of the 
English nation into one of strength and reality, with 
its centre of gravity in the abdomen. The peaceful 
influence of their habitation in the woods, together 
with the impression made by the wind, the singing 
of birds, etc., formulated the speech and character 
of the German nation into one more of ideality, with 
its centre of gravity in the thorax. 

The fondness of the English for the sea, their su- 
premacy thereon, etc., need not be amplified upon: 

" Wherever billows foam 
The Briton fights at home, 
His hearth is built of water." 

The fondness of the Germans for the woods is 
equally noted: Der " dunkle," " zaubrische," " ge- 
heimnissvolle," " heilige "— Wald (The "darkly 
deep," " magical/' " mysterious/' and " sacred' 
woods) are but common expressions. 

There is not a word in the English language of the 
same significance as that of " Der Wald." It em- 
braces many ideas, of which the words " the woods " 
and " the forest " are not expressive. These, in a 
literal translation, find expression in the words 
41 Das Gehoelz " and " Der Forst," which are of a 
more realistic nature. 

The English language, on the other hand, is full 



148 Duality of Voice 

of expressions applying to nautical matters and to 
the sea, for which there are no adequate expressions 
in the German language. 

The fondness of the present Emperor of Germany 
for the sea must be attributed to the English blood 
flowing in his veins. While it is his desire to create 
a powerful navy, the people of Germany are indif- 
ferent to, and obstruct rather than assist, the ac- 
complishment of this desire. 

Idiomatic expression, the soul of language, has its 
incipiency in the soul of a people, and may pervade 
it for centuries before the body of the language, the 
words in which its thoughts are clad, makes its 
appearance. It must have taken many centuries 
more before these words grouped themselves into 
sentences and assumed the shape of speech. The 
words may change, but the idiomatic expression 
will always remain the same. 

So, also, must the soul of man have had existence 
for an indefinite period of time before a body was 
formulated to clothe it in. The spiritual cell, if I 
may be permitted to use such an expression, must 
have existed before the material; or, in other words, 
the spiritual cell must have made its appearance 
long before the material cell commenced to make its 
appearance. 

RELATIONSHIP SUPPOSED TO EXIST AS BETWEEN 
THE GERMAN AND ENGLISH NATIONS 

It is a common saying that there is a close rela- 
tionship existing between the German and English 
nations. There is no greater fallacy than this. I 



German and English 149 

contend that this relationship is of a very distant 
order, consisting, as it does, merely in words, or, as 
I have said, garments loosely flung around the 
sturdy, strong, and unalterable stem of English 
idiomatic expression. In every other respect there 
is a great dissimilarity and antagonism even, exist- 
ing between these two peoples. If there is any 
analogy existing between them at all, it is one of 
opposition; one that is based on the idea that ex- 
tremes meet (les extremes se tonchcnf), their poles 
being diametrically opposed to each other. 

There is no more relationship existing between 
(Anglo-Saxon) German and English than there is 
between (Norman) French and English ; the Ger- 
man, French, and English languages each possess- 
ing their own especial and unalterable idiomatic 
expressions. Whatever foreign words either of 
them adopt must be subjected to their idiom, or 
keep floating along as best they may in their original 
character. 

The entire aspect of these three nations, the 
French, English, and German, points to the fact that 
there must be a radical difference in their vital mode 
of existence. Just what this vital mode consists 
in, in respect to the two latter nations, I expect to 
still further establish in a future publication. Both 
languages traverse nearly the entire range of the 
vital organs in opposite directions. Hence the 
strength and also the weaknesses of these languages, 
as compared with other languages which, extending 
from side to side, have a smaller compass but a com- 
paratively purer range of sounds, Regarding other 



150 Duality of Voice 

nations and their languages, I trust others, thoroughly 
familiar with the same, by applying to their investi- 
gations similar principles, will establish similar facts. 

Owing to its centrifugal tendency, it is necessary 
for English vocal utterance to open the mouth much 
wider than it is for German. Let a German open 
his mouth no farther for the enunciation of English 
than he is in the habit of opening it while speaking 
his own language, and he will not be able to utter a 
single sound. The same result will obtain when an 
Anglo-Saxon attempts to speak German on the same 
basis that he is in the habit of speaking his own 
language. Owing to the centripetal tendency of 
the German language, the mouth in speaking Ger- 
man is but slightly extended. That this respective 
widening and narrowing of, not only the mouth but 
of every other channel employed in bringing about 
vocal utterance, must tend to exercise a marked in- 
fluence on Anglo-Saxon and German features will 
be obvious. The consequence is that the mouth of 
English-speaking persons in thus being extended has 
a broad yet narrow appearance, with rather thin and 
compressed lips, while the mouth of Germans in 
thus being contracted is comparatively smaller, with 
full and ripe lips. This feature is in conformity 
with all other features which, with Anglo-Saxons, 
are elongated, with Germans contracted. 

Experiments regarding centrifugal and centripetal 
action can be made to good advantage by resting 
your head sideways on a pillow. In this position 
during vocal utterance you can feel these actions, 
and, feeling them, " measure " them. This mode of 



Language and Motion 151 

proceeding can be successfully adopted in many 
other experiments connected with these studies. I 
must warn the reader, however, again and again, 
that all this has reference only to languages spoken 
idiomatically correct. It has no reference whatever 
to foreign languages spoken in the usual mechanical 
manner. 

LANGUAGE AND MOTION 

I will now show that motion is the first impulse 
and primary condition of speech. I will give but a 
few examples at present, but expect to prove most 
exhaustively later on that motion must precede, or 
apparently at least, accompany vocal sounds always. 

While standing up, straight, throw out your arms 
horizontally, then speak English. You will have 
no difficulty, but you will not be able to speak Ger- 
man so easily. Next, stand as before, and again 
throw out your arms horizontally, then drop them, 
letting them hang down close to your body. After 
doing so you will have no difficulty in speaking 
German, but you will not be able to speak English 
so readily. In throwing out your arms in the first 
instance, your mouth will open, and you will close it 
in speaking English. In letting them drop, in the 
second instance, your mouth will close, and you 
will open it in speaking German. Now, stand on 
the tips of your toes, and you will have no difficulty 
in speaking English, but you will not be able to speak 
German with ease. Then rest the weight of your 
body on your heels, and you will have no trouble 
in speaking German, but you cannot speak English 
with ease. In standing on the toes the body is ex- 



15 2 Duality of Voice 

tended by centrifugal, in standing on the heels it is 
contracted by centripetal action. Next, extend 
your neck, and you will have less trouble in speak- 
ing English than in speaking German; then lower 
your neck, and you will find no trouble in speaking 
German, but you will in speaking English. These 
experiments might be amplified manifold, but these 
must suffice for the present. 

The same features of the opening and closing of 
the mouth in conformity with the position you as- 
sume, will obtain in all these instances the same 
as at first mentioned. It will scarcely be necessary 
for me to repeat that all this shows that the motion 
for English speech is centrifugal, for German cen- 
tripetal. Nor will it be necessary to call attention to 
the fact that all this tends towards giving Germans 
a condensed and broad, Anglo-Saxons a lengthy 
and narrow bodily appearance. 

It is, however, a noteworthy fact that with Ger- 
mans the nearer you approach the sea, the more 
centrifugal becomes their action and personal ap- 
pearance. The people of Northern Germany, there- 
fore, though radically differing from them in most 
other respects, partake more of the general bodily fea- 
tures of Anglo-Saxon nations than those of the South 
of Germany, who are positively opposed to them. 

Upon having ascertained the correctness of these 
statements by actual experiment, I want to ask the 
reader how he expects to reconcile these facts with 
the universally adopted theory that the larynx is the 
sole instrument productive of vocal utterance. An 
Anglo-Saxon, when stretching out his arms horizon- 



Language and Motion 153 

tally, can readily speak English, while a German in 
the same position cannot utter a sound of his lan- 
guage without difficulty. If the larynx in the case 
of an Anglo-Saxon, under these circumstances, 
produces vocal utterance, why is it not so easy with 
a German ? 

My explanation is this : 

By extending your limbs, in stretching out your 
arms, or standing on your toes, the centrifugal ac- 
tion is instrumental in parting the jaws and giving 
the tongue an upward tendency. In so doing, 
the oesophagus and replica obtain ascendancy over 
the trachea and the larynx. The abdomen (the seat 
of gravitation for English speech) and its tributaries 
thus obtain the mastery over the thorax and its 
tributaries. The former being the main vehicle for 
English speech, such speech can be produced with- 
out molestation. These facts, while favorable to 
the production of English vocal utterance, obstruct 
and hinder German vocal utterance. 

In lowering the arms or standing on one's heels, 
thus substituting centripetal for centrifugal action, 
the jaws close, the tongue assumes a downward 
tendency. The trachea and the larynx, as well as 
the thorax (the seat of gravitation for German vocal 
utterance), obtain the preponderance, and German 
may be freely spoken, while English is obstructed. 

In raising the tongue, a free passage to the oesoph- 
agus is obtained, while that to the trachea is ob- 
structed. In lowering the tongue, a free passage to 
the trachea is obtained, while that to the oesophagus 
becomes obstructed. It is necessary, however, to 



154 Duality of Voice 

understand that, while English speech is centrifugal 
and German centripetal, these are tendencies only and 
not permanent conditions ; centrifugal and centripetal 
action constantly interchanging and modifying one 
another. An uninterrupted tendency in one and the 
same direction, either centripetally or centrifugally, 
would soon come to an end and produce stagnation, 
inertia, death. There is no action without a count- 
eraction. Hence, ingoing vocal sounds are counter- 
balanced by outgoing; the same as ingoing thoughts 
or thoughts produced by external vision are count- 
erbalanced by outgoing, or thoughts produced by 
internal vision, etc. 

In addition to the parts mentioned, there are 
many other parts of the body which, subjected to 
centrifugal or centripetal action, will produce results 
of the same order as those already mentioned. In 
stretching out your legs (while in a sitting position), 
you will find speaking German to be difficult ; upon 
drawing them up, you will have trouble with Eng- 
lish. The same results may be obtained, in con- 
nection with the toes and fingers, in a number of 
different ways. From all this, it will be readily seen 
that all parts of the body are closely related to each 
other, the tendency of the muscles in one prominent 
part producing the same tendency in all the rest. 

There is one thing which must be mentioned, 
however. To obtain centrifugal action, it is neces- 
sary to stretch the part under consideration; the 
mere extension of a part, without stretching it, will 
be fruitless of results in either one direction or 
another; so will the mere contraction of any part be 



Language and Motion 155 

fruitless of results, unless such contraction is com- 
plete. You can let your arms hang down alongside 
of your body and yet speak English easily; and 
you can hold them out horizontally, and yet speak 
German easily. In either case the contraction and 
expansion must be thorough to produce results either 
centripetally or centrifugally. 

All persons make similar motions to those men- 
tioned with every sound they utter, though these 
motions do not appear on the surface ; in fact, they 
could not speak if they did not make them. 

I have already mentioned, but want to repeat, 
that centrifugal action is the cause of the elongated 
faces, and especially of the elongation of the lower 
jaw of English-speaking persons. It is also the 
cause of their semi-parted lips while in repose, show- 
ing their teeth, and a full exhibition thereof while 
speaking; a fact which has caused much merriment 
to continental nations, and has given rise to an 
endless number of caricatures of " milord ' and 
" milady " on their travels, etc. It is also the 
cause of the perfection of dentistry in this country 
and in England, where the teeth are always more or 
less on exhibition. In other countries, where they 
are hidden behind the curtains of the lips, which are 
usually closed, except while speaking or laughing, 
this necessity does not arise to nearly the same 
extent. To the centrifugal force there is also due 
much of the innate charm and beauty of English- 
speaking women. 

From all this one great lesson may be learned : 
no matter by what divergent means nature may 



156 Duality of Voice 

work its ends, similar results are obtained, though 
often arrived at by opposite means and from op- 
posite directions. Thus life ever presents to us 
new forms and features, and ever infuses new in- 
terest into what otherwise might become unbearable 
in its monotony. A better insight into these facts 
ought to make us feel more lenient towards what 
appear to us as other people's " idiosyncrasies/' 
It should also have a tendency to prevent us from 
attempting to enforce to their full extent laws made 
in conformity with our own desires and inclinations 
but in direct opposition to those of others (foreigners 
living among us), whose character and disposition 
lead them in diametrically opposite directions. 

Unless otherwise mentioned, I wish the reader to 
remember that I am always speaking not only from 
the standpoint of an American, but as an American, 
The fact of my long residence in this country, where 
I have spent the best part of my life, in itself would 
not entitle me to do this, having shown, as I have 
endeavored to do, that this is not sufficient to change 
a person from one nationality into another. During 
my earnest endeavor at fathoming these differences, 
however, I have been led into assuming the forms 
which distinguish the Anglo-Saxon from the Ger- 
man. Unless I am with Germans and speak the 
German language, in my thoughts and otherwise I 
lead the life of an American. 

That my English speech, however (though my 
friends in their indulgence would lead me to believe 
otherwise), is not as perfect as it might be, is largely 
due to the fact of my constantly having recourse to 



Language and Motion 157 

the German language, and that I am thus as con- 
stantly led back into these other forms of existence 
which cannot be indulged in without some detriment 
and abstraction from either the one or the other. 
There was a time, in fact, when the transformation 
I have spoken of was taking place (the disturbance 
being so great) that I could not speak well either 
the one language or the other. 

I am well convinced, on the other hand, that 
through perseverance perfection in the utterance of 
both of these languages, for speech as well as for 
song, and possibly of some other languages besides, 
may be attained in the course of time; nature being 
so pliable that, when the required actions are once 
fully understood and complied with, a perfect change 
may be made instantly in passing from one language 
on to another. Such changes, in fact, are naturally 
made by persons who, in their infancy, have been 
educated in and taught to speak several languages 
at one and the same time; the material during in- 
fancy being so pliable that it can be readily formed 
into any shape and transformed into any other. All 
of the preceding also shows that, for every separate 
idiom, the entire instrument must be " tuned " for 
its production in a given order, and that only when 
so tuned can such idiom be produced in its entire 
purity. It also shows that, unless so tuned, the 
vocal cords of the larynx and replica cease to be 
instrumental in the production of sound. 

An instrument tuned for the production of the 
English language, consequently, cannot produce 
German sounds, nor can it produce Romanic, Slav- 



158 Duality of Voice 

onic, or the sounds of any other language. Sounds, 
apparently the same, of either the singing or speak- 
ing voice of various languages are, therefore, not the 
same and are certainly not produced in the same 
manner. For a German, consequently, or an Italian 
to attempt to teach an English-speaking person the 
art of singing is an anomaly. A foreigner might, 
with the same show of reason, attempt to teach per- 
sons of another nationality the correct pronunciation 
of their own language. It would be equally false, 
of course, for an English-speaking person to attempt 
to teach a German, Italian, etc., the art of singing, 
unless he had first mastered his pupil's idiomatic 
expression, or the pupil had mastered that of his 
teacher. 

Many persons are under the erroneous impression 
that song and speech are performances separate and 
apart from each other, while they are in reality of 
precisely the same, though inverse, order. They 
are of the same order, for instance, as the back and 
palm of the hand : the former representing speech, 
the latter song; the external and the internal, or the 
anterior and the posterior. As the back of the 
hand, such must and will be its palm ; or, as its 
palm, such must and will be its back. 

Conversing with a teacher some time since, she 
scorned such propositions, saying a person's lan- 
guage had nothing to do with his or her song; the 
mode of production of the latter being the same 
with ALL nationalities; besides, she had studied the 
larynx, and knew all about it. This, of course, 
settled it, and I had not anything further to say. 



Difference in Breathing 159 

DIFFERENCE IN THEIR MODE OF BREATHING AS 
BETWEEN ANGLO-SAXONS AND GERMANS 

Anglo-Saxons inspire first into the thorax and 
then into the abdomen. Germans inspire first into 
the abdomen and then into the thorax. The for- 
mer expire first from the abdomen and then from 
the thorax; the latter expire first from the abdomen 
and then from the thorax. This, however, gives 
but a partial account of the process of breathing, 
and I must postpone a more explicit one to a later 
period. 

To prove the correctness of the above assertion, 
press your hand against the left side of your thorax 
anteriorly, and you will find it difficult to inhale. 
If you press your hand against the right side of 
your thorax, on the other hand, you will have no 
difficulty in inhaling. Next, press your hand 
against the right side of your abdomen, and you 
will not be able to exhale ; but if you press your 
hand against its left side, you will experience no 
trouble in exhaling. In pressing your hands one 
against the left side of the breast and the other 
against the right side of the abdomen, you will have 
trouble in breathing. 

Pressures produced in the precisely opposite man- 
ner in every respect, on the part of a German-speak- 
ing person, will produce effects of precisely the same 
nature. A German, in pressing the right side of 
his abdomen, will not be able to inspire freely, but 
pressing its left side will not hinder him from doing 
so. Pressing the left side of his thorax will impede 
his expiration, while the pressing of its right side 



160 Duality of Voice 

will not prevent him from doing so. These results 
will become more obvious when these pressures are 
continued for some time. All the pressures men- 
tioned are to be applied anteriorly. Pressures of 
the same nature applied posteriorly produce opposite 
results with Anglo-Saxons as well as Germans. 

Similar results may be obtained by producing 
pressures on the median line of either thorax or 
abdomen, front as well as back. Such will also be 
the case when pressures are produced on either side 
from the armpits downward or from the hips up- 
ward. More satisfactory results, however, than 
those obtained through mechanical pressure can be 
obtained by making the respective parts rigid. It 
will scarcely be necessary for me to mention all 
these various causes and consequent results in de- 
tail, as any one interested in these matters can work 
them out for himself from that which I have said. 

RISE AND FALL, OR RHYTHM 

The thorax is productive of the falling, the abdo- 
men of the rising voice, the former being the repre- 
sentative of the impression for sounds, the latter of 
their expression. 

An Anglo-Saxon s voice, inspiring, as he does, into 
the thorax, and expiring from the abdomen, will first 
fall and then rise. A German s voice, on the con- 
trary, inspiring, as he does, into the abdomen, and 
expiring from the thorax, will first rise and then fall. 

This is the fundamental cause of the difference 
between the idiomatic expression of these two 
peoples, and primarily also of the difference existing 



Rise and Fall, or Rhythm 161 

between their national traits physically as well as 
mentally. 

Every original word in either of these languages 
will illustrate these facts: 

Vater, Mutter, Bruder, Schwester. 

Take the same words in English, and the accent 
will be reversed : 

\ / y / x / x / 

Father, Mother, Brother, Sister 

When these and similar words were adopted into 
the English language, it was done at the expense of 
their original idiomatic expression. I am speaking 
of the music, the rise and fall, the rhythm pervad- 
ing a language, not of time or measure, nor of the 
intonation, nor of emphasis. 

I make four distinctions, and expect to prove that 
they are the basis of every artistic expression of 
either speech or song. First, measure or time. 
Second, the rise and fall of the voice, equal to its 
rhythm. Third, intonation, which pertains to 
words in accordance with their meaning. Fourth, 
emphasis, which has reference to the feelings. 

That the human voice is capable of at one and the 
same time expressing four moods so different from 
each other, shows that there are various factors 
(all of a different nature) simultaneously at work 
producing these different results. To correctly in- 
dicate these four characteristics, it would be neces- 
sary to mark each syllable in a fourfold manner. I 
shall confine myself to the rhythm and the metre, 



1 62 Duality of Voice 

and shall mark the former above the line by using 
the signs for accent (' v ), and the latter below the 
line by using those for metre (— ^). 

Right here is the main stumbling-block with per- 
sons of either nationality in speaking the language 
of the other. They will in so doing invariably retain 
the idiomatic expression of their own vernacular. 

The proper way to illustrate the rhythm would be 
as follows : 

Vater, Mutter, gut. 
Father, Mother, good. 

There is always a rise of the voice before its fall 
in German, and a fall before its rise in English for 
each and every syllable. When a language is well 
spoken, this complete intonation is always heard. 
If this needs illustration, which it should not, being 
so obvious, the poetry of both peoples offers proofs 
in great abundance. It is a notable fact that, with 
German verse, the voice for the end syllable always 
sinks, with English it rises; the former is generally 
short, the latter long; but even where the word 
ends with a long syllable in German the voice falls 
at the end, and where one ends with a short syllable 
in English the voice rises at the end. 

To anxiously count every syllable in poetry is 
contrary to the spirit of a language. There are 
slight touches here and there which simply serve as 
connecting links, and which, in marking the rhyth- 
mic flow of sounds, should not be included as belong- 
ing to the metre. Most of these are prefixes or 



Rise and Fall, or Rhythm 163 

affixes, pauses for repose or relaxation, consisting 
in scarcely noticeable inspirations or expirations, 
which are necessary to strengthen the voice for the 
actual metre. The various intonations are generally 
expressed by the use of the signs for long and short 
only. As the latter, properly speaking, only repre- 
sent time or measure, the voice is left to express as 
best it may and without any guidance whatsoever 
every other factor composing a language. All I 
want to do now is to show by the signs for the accent 
the difference between the English and German 
rhythmic movement : 

/ \ / \ / \ / V 

Auf der duftverlornen Grenze 

Jener Berge tanzen hold 

/ \ / \ / \ / \ 

Abendwolken ihre Taenze 



/ 



/ N 



Leicht geschuerzt im Strahlengold. 

Lenau, 



Auf ihrem Grab da steht eine Linde 

/\ /\ / \ /\ . • \ / \ 

Drin pfeifen die Voegel im Abendwinde ; 

— — \J \J — — \s w — \-/ — - \J 

/ \ /\ / \ /\ f\ /\ /\ / \ 

Die Winde die wehen so lind und so schaurig, 

Die Voegel die smgen so suess und so traurig. 

Heine. 

The beginning of every line in this verse might 
remain unmarked as not belonging to the rhythmic 



164 Duality of Voice 

expression proper, and being expressive mainly of 
an inspiration preceding the expiration which it 
foreshadows. The beauty of Heine's verse is largely 
due to the fact that he does not anxiously count 
time, but lets his voice rise and fall where it is most 
effective. It will be noticed that there is a greater 
movement, as expressed by the signs of the rhythm, 
in Heine's verse than there is in Lenau's, hence the 
inexpressible charm of his diction. Here is another 
great poet, or poetess rather, the greatest Germany 
has produced, also fearless of prescribed forms, but 
full of charm and power: 

O schaurig ists uebers Moor zu gehn, 

„ r y \, s\ / \ / \ 

Wenn es wimmelt vom Haiderauche, 

Sich wie Phantome die Duenste drehn 
Und die Ranke haekelt am Strauche. 

Droste-Huelshoff. 

In these last two citations, the dactylus ( — ^ ^) is 
the prevailing measure, which but strengthens my 
assertion that in German diction there is a fall after 
a rise; the former being here more distinctly ex- 
pressed than in the simple trochaic measure. The 
fall, the relaxation, being greater, the rise, the vigor 
in the expression, thereby gains additional strength. 
What is the consequence of this falling off or gliding 
down in German diction so well expressed in Lenau's 

Auf der duftverlornen Grenze " ? 



Rise and Fall, or Rhythm 165 

It is not a positive line of demarcation, but one 
which is lost, as it were, " in the soft ether of the 
evening sky. " 

Hence the high tide succeeded by the low, the 
aspiration followed by resignation, the night after 
the day, death after life, repose after the strife — all 
this expresses the genius of the German language ; 
and is also expressive of German life and character 
— its dreaminess, its longing, its desire for the ideal, 
never to be attained; the abstract, the abstruse; its 
yearning, its altruism, its transcendentalism, its 
Weltschmerz (the sadness pervading all nature). It 
is also expressive of its Begeisterung (an enthusiasm 
which upon the slightest provocation takes a man 
almost off his feet). All these are traits of the 
German national character. 

There is no spiritual bond among all these mil- 
lions that could possibly produce such sentiments 
and feelings as its result, differing, as they do, from 
the feelings of any other nation or people, but that 
of a language common to all. 

To prove that the trochaic measure is the one 
ordained by nature for German expression, it is but 
necessary to glance at the characteristic words of 
the preceding verses : 

. ' \ /.\ /\ /\ /\ / \ / 

Wimmelt, Haide, gehen, vvehen, drehen, Ranke, hae* 

kelt, Grenze, jener, Berge, Abend, Wolken, Taenze, 
strahkn, ihren, erne, Linde, pfeifen, Voegel, Winde, 
schaung, singen, traung. 



i66 Duality of Voice 

The same rhythm, though not so obviously ex- 
pressed, obtains with the words of one syllable : 

Auf, der, Duft, hold, leicht, im, Gold, 

Grab, stent, lind, suess, ueber's, Moor. 

Now compare with this the strength and vigor of 
English diction, which runs in the precisely oppo- 
site direction : 

The stag at eve had drunk his fill, 
Where danced the moon on Monan's rill ; 

V/ — — V^ \S — — *^ — — SX — * 

And deep his midnight lair had made, 

v^ — — v/ «— ^ — » ^/ ■ 

_\ / \ / \ , .\ /- \ ,/ 

In lone Glenartney s hazel shade. 

Scott. 
The day is done, and the darkness 

Falls from the wings of night, 
As a feather is wafted downward 

^\ / \ \ /, ,\ , ./ A /. 

From an eagle in his flight. 

LONGFELLOW. 

Oh east is east, and west is west. 
And never the two shall meet, 

Till earth and sky stand presently, 
At God s great judgment seat. 



Rise and Fall, or Rhythm 167 

But there is neither east nor west, 

Border, nor breed, nor birth, 
When two strong men stand face to face. 

Though they come from the ends of tlie earth. 

Kipling. 

It is either the iambic (y — ) or the anapest (^ ^ — ). 
Of course, these vary to some extent in con- 
formity with the reader's intonation, but the spirit 
of the language is always from weakness to strength, 
in place of from strength to weakness, as with the 
German. It is always the waves approaching the 
shore and then breaking against it, as against the wind 
coming tip suddenly and then dying away. This is 
the reason why a serenade or lullaby in English can 
never be rendered with the same effect as in German, 
the English voice rising at the end instead of falling. 

Wherever a verse commences with a stress, it 
must be considered that a fall of the voice or an in- 
spiration has preceded it; this, though unaccom- 
panied by sound, being really the case. I have thus 
marked the beginning of Longfellow's beautiful 
lines: 

Falls as from. 

Mr. Lunn, in his PliilosopJiy of Voice, has the 
following : 

How many Englishmen dare utter loudly a 
word beginning with a vowel ? If attempted, either 
it would not be done, or, in spite of the speaker, 



1 68 Duality of Voice 

owing to the weakness of the muscles which draw 
the cords together [szc] y an aspirate would precede 
the vowel. " 

This is right, as far as his observation is con- 
cerned, but he does not seem to know that this very 
weakness he complains of is really the strength of 
the English language, the lull before the storm, the 
concentration before the explosion; and that " thus 
the idiosyncrasy of our people's speech ' is not 
" deadness, weakness, and general feebleness/' but, 
on the contrary, a strength and a virility not sur- 
passed by any other tongue. This finds illustration 
in Kipling's 

w w \ / W 

Oh east is east, etc. 

It is but necessary to comprehend the laws which 
underlie this apparent weakness to turn it to its best 
account, and to obtain from it the highest results, 
both for speech and song. As for the " weakness 
of the muscles which draw the cords together," it 
will scarcely be necessary for me to make a specific 
refutation ; the premises upon which such assump- 
tion is founded being quite untenable, there being 
quite as much vigor in the muscles and cords of an 
Anglo-Saxon as in those of any other nation. Nor, 
I suppose, will it be necessary to strengthen my 
assertions by once more quoting the separate words 
and thus pointing out the iambic, the rise after the 
fall (y — ), or the anapest (^ ^ — ), the twofold repose 
and gathering of strength for the final emphasis. 

The English language in its Saxon words mainly 
consists of monosyllables. These, however, as 



Rise and Fall, or Rhythm 169 

stated, must be looked upon as words of two syl- 
lables, a suppressed intonation always preceding 
their vowel sounds. The majority of such words, 
as a matter of fact, originally consisted of two 
syllables, of which the last was dropped when they 
were adopted by the English. This last syllable, 
representing the fall of the voice thus disappearing, 
left the first, which represented its rise, standing 
unsupported by itself. As the rise of the voice, 
however, cannot be expressed without the accom- 
paniment of its fall, the latter always tacitly accom- 
panies the same, and is expressed in an undertone, 
preceding the rise. 

Almost every verb of this class will give evidence 
of this fact : 



Gehen— go, sehen — see, hoeren — hear, 
sprechen — speak, kochen — cook, tanzen — dance, 

fallen — fall, etc. 

Hence, in conformity with the above, these words 
in the English language should be properly marked 
thus: 

A' w , x ' w , w , . w 

Go, see, hear, speak, cook, dance, etc. 

which gives the real intonation thereof. 

This applies to all words commencing with a 
vowel, and explains what Mr. Lunn has designated 
as a " weakness of the English language " : 

Art, arm, or, all, eagle, each, old, etc. 



1 7° Duality of Voice 

Without this half-suppressed fall of the voice, 
there would be no beauty, no charm, no soul in the 
English language ; in fact, it could not exist. 
Words of two syllables, however, always have the 
fall of the voice on the first, its rise on the second, 
syllable, even where the preponderance of time be- 
longs to the first syllable, as in the words 

Danced, hazel, etc. 
— \j — \j 

The reader will find these statements sustained by 
almost every word he may examine into, which will 
show that the characteristic expression of English 
diction is that of the iambic measure, which passes 
from weakness to strength ; while that of German 
diction, as already stated, is that of the trochaic 
measure, which passes from strength to weakness. 

Having shown that German sentiment is in accord 
with the idiomatic expression of the German lan- 
guage, I will now show that English sentiment also 
conforms to its idiomatic expression. I must beg 
the reader, however, not to be over-critical. I am 
not attempting to furnish comparative sketches of 
the national character of these peoples in a literary 
sense, but am entering into these matters for the 
sole purpose of sustaining the results of my physio- 
logical investigations. Nor should these attempts 
be applied to individual cases, there being excep- 
tions to all rules, but to the national character in 
general. If a person in making investigations of 
this kind had to constantly fear that he might be 
treading on some one's sensitive toes, he could never 
make any headway at all. I am, in fact, perfectly 



Rise and Fall, or Rhythm 17 1 

willing to apologize beforehand for any such mishap 
possibly taking place, as I wish to be perfectly im- 
partial and without bias. I have said this much 
partly for the reason also that in consequence of 
some remark, on one occasion, made in my former 
publication in favor of the English vs. the Germans, 
one critic honored me with the epithet " renegade. " 
The rising voice succeeding the falling is not a 
soft and gradual receding, but, on the contrary, it is 
more like an explosion, a trumpet-blast ; the inspira- 
tion which had been '* stored " being suddenly re- 
leased. There is no such " storing " in connection 
with German diction ; inspiration and expiration 
succeeding each other on the spot. With English 
diction this change may be compared to the break of 
day after the night ; the fray after the repose ; resur- 
rection after death; a conflagration and a rebuild- 
ing at once on the spot, not only individually, but 
by an entire community (Boston and Chicago) ; an 
outburst after due deliberation ; no sentimentality, 
but a firm resolve for the right ; patient submission 
to a point, then a strike for liberty; the slow ac- 
cumulation of a fortune and the spontaneous spend- 
ing thereof; a hot political campaign and a victory 
or defeat; in either case acquiescence; no vain 
mourning after the fact; a butterfly of wealth, 
idleness, and fashion, then perhaps ruin ; yet not 
despair, but a brave conformity to altered circum- 
stances; an energy in the pursuit of business or of 
war which does not flag until utterly exhausted or 
success is achieved and a victory is won. All this is 
due to the reserve force in the character of English- 



17 2 Duality of Voice 

speaking people, which comes to their rescue when 
circumstances demand it. A world positive and 
direct, full of energy, restlessness, and activity. A 
world of, and for, this world; whose world to come, 
even, must have a positive and well-defined character 
and surroundings: 

" Where the walls are made of jasper and the streets are 
paved with gold. ,, 

To what is all this due but to this bond of language 
uniting these millions, and embracing every foreign 
element, in its children at least ? The theme is 
inexhaustible, but I am limited as to time; yet 
additional remarks on the same subject will be forth- 
coming during the further pursuance of these studies. 

For song, it appears to me, the words, besides 
being marked by notes, should also be marked as to 
rhythm, as this would assist singers in giving them 
the proper intonation; notes indicating metre, but 
not rhythm. 

Metre and rhythm are produced by two distinctly 
different processes; metre, or time, being the out- 
come of a mode of breathing subject to the will, 
while rhythm is the outcome of an involuntary mode 
of breathing for a characteristic quality inherent in 
a nation's language as its idiomatic expression. 

Ordinarily, both metre and rhythm are expressed 
by the same signs (^ — ); this is very misleading. 

To express time, or metre, I use the signs for 
short and long (y — ). To express rhythm, or the 
fall and rise of the voice, I use the signs for what is 
usually called the accent ( ' v ). If we were to meas- 



Rise and Fall, or Rhythm 173 

ure the exact time, however, consumed in the utter- 
ance of syllables, we would find that the falling voice, 
which is the product of inspiration and belongs to 
the thorax, requires more time than the rising voice, 
which is the product of expiration and belongs to 
the abdomen. 

In marking verse, however, the sign for long (-) 
generally accompanies the short syllable of the rising, 
and the sign for short (^) the, as a matter of fact, 
long syllable of the falling voice. It takes longer to 
fill a bottle than to pour out its contents ; to prepare 
a dish than to eat it; to walk upstairs than to jump 
from a window. It takes longer to prepare for an 
utterance than to utter it. It takes longer to inspire 
than to expire. 

In view of the vast foreign element constituting a 
part of this nation, it would be a matter of interest 
to know at what period the foreigner ceases to exist 
as such and the " American *' begins; or, in other 
words, to understand when the evolution takes place 
which transforms the foreigner into the American. 
From my point of view it is, above all, a question of 
language. The political aspect of the case is scarcely 
to be considered. An unnaturalized Englishman, 
consequently, after thoroughly "Americanizing" his 
language, becomes more of an American (no matter 
whether he himself thinks so or not) than an Irish- 
man who, though naturalized, never ceases to use 
his native brogue. 

These questions, of course, are many-sided. When 
I speak of nationality, however, I have the best speci- 
mens of a nation as representatives thereof in view 



i74 Duality of Voice 

always. A man with a foreign accent does not have 
the same standing or influence in municipal, state, 
and national councils as one who speaks a pure Eng- 
lish ; there is always a feeling against him, no matter 
how able or patriotic he may be, of some foreign 
influence as a substratum in his composition. 

STRESS 

I have already stated that the thorax is the seat 
of the falling, the abdomen that of the rising, voice. 
This can be tested by a simple experiment, the result 
of which will be as startling as it is phenomenal. 
By simply pressing the stomach, or maki7ig the same 
rigid, you will find that the fact of your doing so will 
prevent you from uttering any sound belonging to the 
rising voice, or the stress laid upon a word. 

Take, for instance, the following: 

" Oh, say, can you see by the dawn's early light," 

and you will find that, upon pressing the stomach, 
or making the same rigid, you will not be able to 
utter the words " say," "see," 'dawn's," and 
" light." This will become more obvious in ut- 
tering these words slowly than in doing so rapidly. 
You will have no difficulty, on the other hand, in 
uttering the rest of the words, viz.: "Oh," "can 
you," " by the," " early." 

Upon releasing the stomach and bringing a pres- 
sure to bear upon the chest, on the other hand, you 
will have no difficulty in uttering the first words 
mentioned, those of the rising, while you will be 



Stress 175 

unable to utter the last, those of the falling voice. 
This rule holds good for all peoples and all lan- 
guages. 

There is this difference, however, as between 
English and German speech, that, for the former, 
the falling voice (identical with that of the thorax) 
precedes the rising (identical with that of the ab- 
domen) ; while for the latter the reverse is the case ; 
— Anglo-Saxons inspiring into the chest and then 
into the stomach ; Germans into the stomach and 
then into the chest. Germans will have greater 
difficulty in making this experiment than Anglo- 
Saxons, as words of the falling voice, as a rule and 
in all languages, precede those of the rising. Ger- 
mans, consequently, must think of the word of 
the rising voice, which, as a matter of fact, suc- 
ceeds the words of the falling, before they can utter 
the latter. This difficulty is enhanced by the fact 
that while the rising voice is generally confined to a 
single word, the falling voice generally embraces 
several. 

Hence the frequency of the use of the anapest 
(^ ^ — ) and the dactylus ( — ^ ^), and the relative 

rarity of the use of the bachius (y ) and the anti- 

bachius ( ^) ; short always representing the fall- 
ing voice, which embraces more than one word, while 
long represents the rising voice, which usually em- 
braces but one single word; the definition requiring 
more words than the thing to be defined. Hence, 
for German diction, the ' ' thought ' ' of the zvord of 
the rising voice must precede the ' * utterance \ ' of the 
words of the falling ; while for English diction, the 



1 76 Duality of Voice 

" thoughts" of the words of the falling voice must 
precede the ' ' utterance ' ' of the word of the rising. 
A German may try and say the following: 

" In einem Thai bei armen Hi/ten, 
Erschien mit jedem jungen Jahr" 

in such a manner as not to think of the words which 
are italicized before uttering those which immedi- 
ately precede them, and he will find that he will be 
unable to pronounce the latter. 

An Anglo-Saxon may try and say the following: 

" And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave 
O'er the land of the free and thehome of the brave" 

and he will find that in saying " in triumph doth 
wave," he must think of the words " doth wave ' 
before he will be able to utter the word V tri- 
umph." Again, in saying "the home of the 
brave " he must think of the words " of the brave ' 
before he will be able to utter the word " home." 

A German, consequently, must think of the prin- 
cipal word before he can utter those which qualify 
it ; an Anglo-Saxon must think of the latter before 
he can utter the former. 

In place of using mechanical pressure, the same 
results can be obtained by making the respective 
parts rigid. Regarding this matter of making parts 
rigid, I want to make the following explanation, 
illustrating the physiological process going on in so 
doing. 

While a part is rendered inactive, placed hors de 
combat, so to say, by the application of mechanical 



Stress 177 

pressure, the same result can also be obtained by 
making such part rigid. To accomplish this, it is 
but necessary to positively think of such part, to 
associate your mind with it, which is equal to an 
act of expiration when it relates to the abdomen, 
and inspiration when it relates to the thorax. By 
positively thinking of the abdomen, which is equal 
to an expiration therefrom, you will be unable to 
utter the stress or rise of the voice, which is the 
product of an expiration from the stomach ; by posi- 
tively thinking of the thorax, which is equal to an 
inspiration into the same, you will be unable to utter 
the fall of the voice, which is the product of an in- 
spiration into the chest. The reason is obvious: 
We cannot utter sound in the sanie direction in which 
we breathe ; sound and respiration ahv ays following 
opposite directions. 

For the purpose of making satisfactory experi- 
ments in this respect, as, in fact, in every other re- 
spect in connection with these investigations, it is 
necessary that inspiration or expiration, as the case 
may be, should be continuous, that is, that either the 
one or the other should be persisted in until a result 
is obtained; namely, until an apparent increase or 
decrease in the size of the part of the body under 
consideration, or an inflation or depletion of the 
same, will be perceptible. Though it may be difficult 
at first, a person will soon learn to distinguish be- 
tween an increase or a swelling of a part, which 
means inspiration into the same, and a decrease or 
a shrinking or diminution thereof, which means 
expiration from the same. 



PHYSIOLOGY OF THE VOICE IN RELA- 
TION TO WORDS 

IN the further pursuance of the questions hereto- 
fore under consideration, I shall now enter upon 
a theme of a still more subtle nature. The ques- 
tion of metre, rhythm, accent, etc., is one which is 
involved in much mystery; nor can I find that many 
persons entertain precisely the same ideas as being 
expressed by these terms. 

Accepting as a fundamental principle the fact that 
our various spiritual conditions are based upon our 
ability to extract the necessary inspiration therefor 
from the air, which bears the same relation to our 
spiritual existence that the earth does to that of our 
body (in furnishing it ivith such elements as it requires 
for its maintenance), I contend that we breathe for 
speech in as many different modes as there are parts 
or elements in its composition. This proposition does 
not necessarily conflict with the fact that we also 
draw elements from the air, as analytical chemistry 
has proven, which serve for the construction of 
matter; such elements, however, instead of being 
strictly material, as they have every appearance of 
being, are, in reality, the spiritual complements of 

178 



Physiology of the Voice 1 79 

the matter they help to form ; matter and spirit 
going hand in hand in our entire composition. 

In reading poetry, or giving expression to the 
same in song (I repeat), we do so in a fourfold 
manner: 

First: as to metre or time (the " measure' of 
time). 

Second : as to the rhythm or the music pervading 
the voice, produced by its rise and fall, also called 
cadence, or the idiomatic expression of a language. 

Third : as to accent. 

Fourth : as to emphasis. 

The metre is produced by an artistic mode of 
breathing (in addition to our ordinary and permanent 
mode), marked by regular repetitions of a given 
order of inspirations and expirations which can be 
"measured* as to the time consumed in their 
enunciation, and are therefore, not incorrectly, called 
"feet." 

The metre is a product or outcome of the will, a 
force which presides over material-spiritual issues. 
It changes with our inclinations and moods, and is 
expressive thereof. We can pass from one metre 
to another at will, as the occasion may require. It 
is the material part of speech, as w r e can measure it 
and account for it as to time in space, supposing 
time to be incorporated. The metre expressive of 
joy, for instance, being quick, that of sorrow slow; 
the former, if incorporated, would take up less space 
than the latter, in the same proportion as it con- 
sumes less time in being uttered. 

The rhythm is that characteristic quality which 



180 Duality of Voice 

distinguishes one language from another, the basis 
upon which it is built and around which all its ele- 
mentary words cluster; its fundamental principle, its 
idiomatic expression, the music pervading its every 
syllable; the inflection, the rise and fall, the cadence 
of the voice ; the spirit of a language, which is per- 
manent and unchangeable. 

The rhythm is an outcome of the mind ; an influ- 
ence which presides over spiritual-material issues. 
As harmony is the first law of nature, so is that har- 
mony which pervades our native tongue the law 
upon which our individual and national characteris- 
tic expressions and actions are based. We exercise 
it intuitively. It is innate in, and unalterably con- 
nected with, our native tongue. It cannot be elimi- 
nated therefrom, or put into it by a foreigner, except 
when acquired in childhood, or by the study of such 
principles as I have attempted to lay down in this 
book. It is inborn in every language as its spirit, 
and is as enduring as that language itself. It is not 
subject to change by the dictates of the will. 

The accent represents that element which distin- 
guishes between the character and meaning of words, 
and has no reference to parts thereof or their relation 
to other words; the same word being pronounced in 
as many different ways and with as many different 
accents as it denotes different senses or meanings; 
while different words, embodying the same idea, are 
utter with precisely the same accent. 

The accent or intonation is an outcome of the 
soul ; an influence which dominates over our spirit- 
ual nature and over spiritual issues. " The rose 



Physiology of the Voice 181 

by any other name would smell as sweet." It is 
equally true that any other name given to the rose 
would be pronounced by the same indefinable in- 
tonation as its present name, with that same em- 
bodiment of the mystery of the soul signifying the 
flower called " a rose." The word" rose," which 
is the same, or nearly the same, in so many different 
languages, though possessing the same spiritual ele- 
ments in them all, varies as to measure and rhythm 
in every one of them. 

If the influence of the soul, embodying an idea in 
a word, through the intonation we give it, were not 
the same for all languages, it would not be possible 
to translate poetry, and retain, to some extent at 
least, that which is commonly called " the rhythm " 
of the original; nor would it be possible to sing a 
song in another language, and retain, even approxi- 
mately, the spiritual elements of the original. We 
would not be impressed with it, would not be 
thrilled by it. 

The intonation of a word, expressive of the soul in 
the embodiment of an idea, is a bond which unites 
all humanity ; not alone the human souls of any 
special day and generation, but of all days and all 
generations. But for the fact that the Greek soul 
is in us to-day, that the native intonation of their 
words is native with us and with all mankind, their 
dead tongue would be absolutely dead for us. We 
could find no meaning in it, no beauty, no spirit, no 
soul. Think of the melody pervading the soul of 
Homer and emanating from his lyre still living and 
finding an echo in our souls ! Think of the harmony 



1 82 Duality of Voice 

pervading the soul of Schiller or Tennyson continu- 
ing to live, and pervading the souls of the latest 
generations! Nor could Luther's famous transla- 
tion of the Bible or its beautiful English version 
ever have been produced, and after production have 
made the same impression on the mind, or been read 
with the same expression of the voice, as the words 
of this same Bible made upon the minds, and were 
expressed by the voice, of its original composers, 
but for the fact that words of the same meaning, in 
every language (aside from metre and rhythm), are 
pronounced precisely the same. It is this universal 
comprehension of their beauty which gives immor- 
tality to the strains of great singers, whether they 
appear in their original form or are translated (that 
is, if well translated) into foreign languages, or are 
set to music and sung either in the one or the other. 

If the performances of creating original composi- 
tions and their translations were of a mere mechani- 
cal order, or were explainable from a mechanical 
standpoint, no such soul effects could ever be pro- 
duced. The word, as such, is a mechanical contriv- 
ance; but its intonation is of the soul, being an 
emanation of the idea it represents. If our ears were 
so schooled that by their "intonation " we could com- 
prehend the meaning of words, we could understand 
every language upon simply hearing it spoken. 

The people of all nations, through their eyesight, 
form the same conception of an object; the same 
being impressed upon all minds in the same manner. 
When a picture thus impressed upon the mind (brain) 
is reproduced by, or is translated into, vocal utter- 



Physiology of the Voice 183 

ance, it continues to remain the same with all people. 
This does not refer to impressions made by material 
objects alone, but extends to immaterial subjects as 
well. Hence, knowing the meaning of a word in 
one language, we can at once conjure up the idea it 
represents in all languages. 

The sight, however, not only impresses our minds 
through the eye with a given picture, but, as there 
is a correlation existing between all our faculties, it 
also impresses the voice with a given inflection, ex- 
pressive of such impression upon the mind, and of 
no other impression ; any given sight or mental con- 
ception of any kind always producing an inflection of 
the voice corresponding therewith. The vocal ex- 
pression of an idea might thus be called an audible 
' photographic " reproduction of the impression 
made by the original object upon the eyesight, and, 
respectively, upon the brain, or it might be called a 
phonographic reproduction thereof, supposing that 
the picture of an object could be impressed upon 
the wax and could thus become audible. How 
such a reproduction may be made from an immate- 
rial subject would be more difficult to comprehend. 
Of the fact, however, that an impression from ab- 
stract subjects is made, and that an audible expres- 
sion of such impression is produced through the 
voice, and that this is the case with all people alike, 
I expect to furnish positive proof in a future pub- 
lication. The fact of our not being accustomed to 
distinguish in this manner between various expres- 
sions through inflections of the voice is no proof 
that they do not exist. . 



1 84 Duality of Voice 

The soul impresses every word with a seal of its 
own, characteristic of the idea it embodies, there 
being as many accents or inflections of the voice as 
there are separate ideas, or, rather, groups of ideas. 
I beg leave to copy the following from the Saturday 
Evening Post of April 8, 1899 : 

" Mr. Kipling recently told an interviewer : ' We write, 
it is true, in letters of the alphabet; but, psychologicaly 
regarded, every printed page is a picture book; every 
word, concrete or abstract, is a picture, The picture 
itself may never come to the reader's consciousness, but 
deep down below, in the unconscious realms, the picture 
works and influences us.' " 

The accent is not subject to the will any more 
than the rhythm. The will can do this, however: 
it can give greater weight, force, and expression, 
and a wider scope, to the correlated forces of 
metre, rhythm, and accent, through the 

Emphasis which it infuses into them. Through 
the emphasis, inlet upon inlet is opened, an addi- 
tional stream of fresh air is infused into them, flood- 
ing the spiritual system. Valve upon valve is then 
opened to let it out. Hence, emphasis is not an 
' element' ' of speech proper, but an amplification, 
an addition to existing elements, rather, impregnat- 
ing them with the life of the heart, the feelings, 
the emotions. 

In distinguishing in this manner, as I have in the 
above, between the will, the mind, and the soul, I 
consider them parts of a great spiritual system in- 
timately connected with corresponding parts of our 



Physiology of the Voice 185 

physical system, but lay no claim as to the correct- 
ness of the terms I have used. On the contrary, I 
feel that they are inadequate, and, at most, a make- 
shift for more fitting expressions. There is a dearth 
of expressional terms, and I am doing the best I can 
with such as are at my disposal. 

In the same sense, also, I distinguish between 
material-spiritual, spiritual-material, and spiritual 
issues; and consider them the outcome, respect- 
ively, of the will, the mind, and the soul. 

I wish it were in my power to at once fully ex- 
plain, as far as I am able to offer any explanation 
at all, how it is mechanically possible to express these 
four elements of metre, rhythm, accent, and empha- 
sis (so widely differing from each other) at one and 
the same time, by four different modes of breath- 
ing, carried on simultaneously, in addition to our 
regular mode of breathing. The perfection of 
elocution and of singing is to carry on all these 
various processes simultaneously in as perfect 
a manner as the subject and the occasion may 
demand. 

I can explain the preceding, in part at least, as 
follows : 

Verse is generally marked by the signs of long 
and short. While they denote time or metre in the 
first instance, they are also used to mark what is 
called " rhythm/ ' Yet, while metre and rhythm 
are apparently of the same order, they are, as a 
matter of fact, invariably of an inverse order. 

We cannot produce two distinctly different expres- 
sions while breathing in one and the same direction. 



1 86 Duality of Voice 

While we breathe for metre in one direction, we 
breathe for rhythm in the opposite direction. 

Regarding that mode of breathing expressive of 
the soul, and pertaining to words in conformity with 
their meaning, and which, in the absence of any 
more significant word, I have called the " accent," 
it is of an altogether different order and does not con- 
flict with these other modes of breathing. 

Having stated that rhythm and accent are invol- 
untary productions, and that metre alone is subject 
to the will, we must look to the metre, measure, or 
time for our guide in our artistic vocal perform- 
ances. To this, emphasis must be added, as being 
likewise subject to the will. 

As every language has its own time, or tempo, 
and cannot be properly produced except in conform- 
ity therewith, it appears to me that it should be 
the first aim of vocal science to ascertain the exact 
nature of such tempo for every separate language. 
When the correct time is kept, all other component 
parts of speech fall into line correctly and involunta- 
rily. Just what the proportionate tempo is for 
English as against German vocal utterance, I am 
unable to say, but it is much quicker for the latter 
than it is for the former. 

There is a duality existing between metre and 
rhythm : the former is voluntary, the latter involun- 
tary. Thus, also, is there a duality between em- 
phasis and accent, of which the former is voluntary, 
the latter involuntary. Every voluntary factor, not 
only in vocal utterance, but every voluntary factor 
in any artistic performance of whatsoever nature, 



"Schools" of Singing 187 

being sustained by an involuntary counter-factor; 
the same as voluntary and involuntary muscles com- 
plement and sustain each other. 

Not only every artistic performance, but I dare 
say every act or action of any kind, is of a dual na- 
ture. Every separate duality, again, being sustained 
by a counter-duality, every performance is sustained 
by four different factors. 

When an act is of a material nature and belongs 
to the hemisphere of the abdomen, it is sustained 
by four counter-factors belonging to the thorax. 
When it is of an immaterial nature and belongs to 
the hemisphere of the thorax, it is sustained by four 
counter-factors having their seat in the abdomen. 
Thus every act or action consists of eight move- 
ments, or an octave of movements. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WORD "SCHOOL" IN CON- 
NECTION WITH THE ART OF SINGING 

Having established the fact that the rhythmic 
movements for English and German vocal expression 
are directly opposed to each other, the one being 
represented by the iambic, the other by the trochaic 
measure, there is still a wide field open for inves- 
tigation as to the idiomatic expression of other 
languages. This it should not be difficult to deter- 
mine; personally, I cannot devote the necessary 
time to this subject even as far as I might be able to 
do so in connection with other languages of which I 
have some knowledge. The differences in other 
tongues, of course, must be embodied in either of the 
two measures named, as these embrace all others. 



1 88 Duality of Voice 

Whatever may constitute a nation's idiomatic ex- 
pression must spring from a variation of either of 
these. While the precedence is given to the abdo- 
men in some and to the thorax in others, the point 
of gravitation, which according to its location calls 
for the special manner in which we inspire into and 
expire from either the one or the other, establishes 
such variation in the idiomatic expression of all 
tongues. 

All that is said about an Italian, a German, or 
any other " school " (with the exception, perhaps, 
of what may constitute the difference between what 
is called " the old and the new Italian school," and 
which covers issues of a nature foreign to these in- 
vestigations) has its proper significance right here : 
There is no " school " in the sense in which this word 
is ordinarily used. There are nations and there are 
languages belonging to such nations. Each nation's 
language is that nation's " school," and no one 
nation can go to school with any other nation. 

Peasants and the mass of the people generally in 
Italy, France, Germany, etc., do not visit academies 
to study vocal art, yet their mode of expression is 
precisely the same as that of the best vocal artists of 
these respective countries. I do not mean to say, 
of course, that the raw material their voices is made 
up of is as rarefied and artistically trained, but that 
the composition, the fundamental element thereof, 
is of precisely the same order as that of their most 
finished artists. This raw material, on the other 
hand, in every instance, varies from that of people 
belonging to every other nation. 



" Schools ' ' of Singing 189 

The best thing, therefore, to be done, to bring 
such vocal material as nature has endowed one with 
up to its greatest perfection, is to have it ' ' schooled ' ' 
by artists belonging to one's own nation. There may 
be a time coming, and the same may not be far dis- 
tant, when methods may be taught by which one 
may become acquainted with the spirit, and learn 
the exact mode of the technical expression, of other 
nations besides one's own. It will then become 
possible to comprehend these foreign methods and 
to profit by comprehending them. As long as the 
principles upon which they are based, however, are 
not understood, any attempt at singing according to 
the same will be futile as an accomplishment or an 
art, and hurtful to the voice of the person making 
the attempt. 

Such person will only injure his or her own natural 
mode of expression, without acquiring the foreign 
mode. 

The idea of learning a certain mode of expression, 
the Italian, for instance, for singing, and applying 
it to #// tongues, is futile and contrary to all reason. 
We might, with as much show of reason, say that 
by learning to pronounce one foreign tongue we 
may apply that knowledge to the pronunciation of 
every other foreign tongue. 

The true state of affairs, and the only one to 
follow, is, and always will be, this : First, and above 
all, learn to use your own tongue thoroughly, for 
all purposes of vocal expression. Then learn the 
use of other tongues for vocal expression in those 
other tongues only. You cannot apply the techni- 



190 Duality of Voice 

cal mode of Italian expression to English vocal ut- 
terance any more than you can apply the technical 
mode of English expression to Italian vocal utter- 
ance. An attempt at so doing is quite as preposter- 
ous in the one case as it is in the other. 

Besides, for the purpose of singing in his own 
tongue, an Anglo-Saxon does not and should not 
want to acquire any other mode, as he is by nature 
in possession of one of the best modes of expression. 
There is none intrinsically purer, none possessed of 
more vigor or power of expression. There are 
those with greater softness combined with purity, 
but lacking strength, as the Italian ; and those with 
more soulfulness combined with strength, but lack- 
ing purity, as the German. This native element 
of purity allied to strength in the Anglo-Saxon, 
more especially in the English-American, mode of 
expression is primarily the cause of the high posi- 
tion in the artistic world of the American singer. I 
ascribe the superiority of the " American " mode of 
expression over the " English/' when untrammelled 
as in song, in part to the greater personal liberty, 
the greater want of conventionality, the vast extent 
of our territory, and our almost constantly clear and 
unclouded sky ; all these being conditions that assist 
the free exercise of one's natural endowments. 
To reach the best results in the art of singing, the 
body as well as the soul must be, as far as possible, 
untrammelled in any direction. While the idio- 
matic expression of the English language here and 
abroad is the same, the social restraint and the con- 
servatism of the English as a nation act against the 



" Schools " of Singing 191 

best outcome of their gift of song, which demands 
for its best expression freedom from conventionality 
or any other constraint. 

Each nation is at its best in its own tongue. 
Our orators are equal to any there are in the 
world. They do not speak according to the Italian, 
the German, or any other school. If they did, they 
would utterly fail and make themselves ridiculous. 
Why do people, then, want to " speak' in this 
more expansive and soulful manner, called " sing- 
ing," in these foreign modes ? I know the answer 
will be that singing and speaking are things quite 
apart, having no affinity in their mode of produc- 
tion. I shall show, as I have already partly shown, 
that they are of precisely the same order, though 
different phases of that order ; that they cannot be 
separated ; in so far as the elements which belong to 
speech also belong to song, and those which belong 
to song also belong to speech; but that they are 
used in an inverse order in the former as well as in 
the latter. 

Listen to a person breathing just before falling 
asleep, in a slow, rhythmical order; material ob- 
jects retire into the background and assume a semi- 
spiritual shape. This is a similar condition to the 
one we are in and in which we breathe during the 
production of song. [By the by, sleep can be in- 
duced by thinking of a song, that is, by mentally sing- 
ing it]. No two nations, however, breathe just alike 
in that condition, any more than they do during 
their waking moments; the mode of breathing dur- 
ing sleep being a reversion always of the one which 



192 Duality of Voice 

obtains during our waking moments. Our mode of 
breathing, however, ahvays determines our mode of 
vocal utterance. We can reverse our voice, as we 
do in whispering, but it is always the same voice, 
as a garment is the same when we turn it inside out. 

Do you know, by the way, that the English whis- 
pering voice is the German speaking, and the Ger- 
man whispering the English speaking voice ? Try 
it, and you will find it so. Go on whispering; that 
is, continue to use your voice in the same mechani- 
cal manner, but instead of for whispering, use it for 
speaking aloud, and you will have the exact mode 
of the other tongue. An Anglo-Saxon, in so doing, 
will be able to speak German aloud, but not Eng- 
lish ; a German will be able to speak English, but 
not German. 

Thinking and speaking are of one and the same 
order. Thought makes the impression of which 
speech is the expression. If this were not the case, 
it would not be possible to pass from thinking to 
speaking or from speaking to thinking at once, and 
without an effort. To produce English speech, we 
must think English in a material way, that is, an- 
teriorly, and in so doing produce an instrument 
from which English material or speech sounds eman- 
ate. To produce English song, we must think 
English in a spiritual way, that is, posteriorly, and 
in so doing produce an instrument from which Eng- 
lish spiritual or song sounds emanate. We cannot 
think English in either of these two ways and pro- 
duce German or Italian sounds for speech or song; 
nor can we produce the latter sounds in any other 



" Schools n of Singing 193 

manner than by thinking, either materially or spirit- 
ually, in these languages, and in the proper idio- 
matic manner inherent therein. 

How can an English-speaking person, physically 
and spiritually formed for English expression, and for 
no other expression, produce proper Italian sounds ? 
She will think Italian in an English way; and, while 
singing Italian words, produce them with an English 
expression. That is not singing Italian, however, 
but English. Is it likely that she will succeed in 
acquiring the Italian mode of expression while her 
teacher himself is ignorant of just what that mode 
consists in, and in what it differs from the native 
mode of vocal expression of his scholar? You might 
as well attempt to produce on a violin the sounds of 
a violoncello or some other instrument. 

To illustrate the power of the natural voice, it will 
but be necessary to call attention to what occurs in 
almost any concert wherein one of America's own 
daughters, now "prima donna asso/uta," is the main 
performer. She sings a grand aria, the work of an 
Italian master, highly artistically and perfectly ren- 
dered. Musicians are delighted; the public ap- 
plauds. She reenters, and now the donna, changed 
to a simple American, sings one of England's or 
America's own songs. The audience, which before 
had been languidly listening, at the first notes of this 
song is stirred, electrified, and now listens intently. 
When she ceases to sing, there is a storm of applause, 
as to almost shake the house. Where the artistic 
sense alone had been engaged before, the hearts and 
the souls of her hearers have now been touched. 



194 Duality of Voice 

Yet I have seen the eccentric Von Buelow delib- 
erately take out his handkerchief after such a 
demonstration and wipe the " desecration " of the 
" ditty " from the keys of the piano which had 
accompanied the song, before he deigned to dignify 
it with one of his " classic " renderings. No doubt 
he had much contempt for it all: the song, the 
singer, and the public. The treasures of that 
" ditty," however, were of an order similar to those 
hidden within the breast of every one composing 
that audience. The pearls, floating through the 
room from the lips of one of its own daughters, 
had, with a sympathetic touch, stirred it to its very 
depths, while the foreign " aria * had left it com- 
paratively cold. Supposing an Italian singer were 
to sing an English " aria " in the English language 
to an Italian audience, and, after that, were to pro- 
duce one of her own simple Italian songs, would not 
the effect be the same ? Would Italians, in fact, 
care to listen to her English interpretation, no mat- 
ter how artistically rendered ? 

It is an entirely different thing, however, for Ger- 
man or Italian singers to come here and sing their 
own songs in their own native tongue. Though 
foreign, the production is genuine. They sing what 
belongs to them, that in which they live, breathe; 
they sing their own soul. Such a performance we 
can comprehend and appreciate, even as we view a 
foreigner with interest, and honor him for that 
which is great and good in him, and for which he is 
distinguished. We can soon feel what is genuine 
and also that which is not ; the former being nature's 



"Schools" of Singing 195 

own production, the latter imitated, forced — un- 
natural. Italians do not sing English or German 
songs ; why should Germans and English-speaking 
people sing Italian and French songs, to the exclu- 
sion, very often, of their own ? 

It was but recently that I heard a German choral 
society sing German songs to a delighted American 
audience. Then came something weird, strange; it 
was German, yet the words were not German. 
Looking at the programme, it turned out to be the 
famous plantation song, " 'Way down upon the 
Suwannee River. " The audience looked bewildered ; 
there was no applause, though, judging by the atti- 
tude of the singers, they had expected to make this 
the grand hit of the evening. 

The last performance of the great festival of the 
United German singers in Philadelphia, in 1897, was 
the production of the " Star-Spangled Banner. " 
Everything in the appearance of the singers showed 
that this finale was to be the crowning act of the 
entire festival. All the singers, male and female, 
participated, and " Old Glory " was waved in the 
air during the performance. But, as I had feared, 
it was a complete failure. Instead of the vast audi- 
ence spontaneously rising to its feet and being 
carried away by enthusiasm, it remained cold and 
indifferent, and there was no applause commensur- 
ate with what it would have been had the performers 
sung the words with the true ring in them and the 
true English accent. The same thing would hap- 
pen if the " Marseillaise " were sung in France, or 
the " Wacht am Rhein " in Germany, by foreign 



19 6 Duality of Voice 

singing societies, no matter how excellently schooled, 
and how artistically rendered. 

A similar experience was had by Madame Brinker- 
hoff, who relates the same in The Vocalist of De- 
cember, 1896, as follows: 

" To show how language is imbedded in the timbre of 
the voice, I will relate an incident of last season. On 
the first night of the representation of the ' Scarlet Let- 
ter/ by Damrosch, sung by German singers, I was not 
surprised or in the least displeased at hearing this beau- 
tiful opera sung with the German timbre of voice ; but 
after listening to a whole act, I heard no German words; 
I listened in vain for the shaping of their consonants and 
vowels, although I heard the German sounds or timbres. 
So I asked the lady seated next to me what language the 
people on the stage were singing. ' German/ she replied. 
I said : " But I hear no German words. Will you kindly 
listen and tell me when you hear German words ? ' She 
listened and replied, ' No, I do not hear German words, 
but I thought before it was German/ She asked me if 
it was English. We could not decide it until the lights 
were turned on, and looked at the programme, which 
read, ' sung in English.' 

" This summer I asked a distinguished singer and 
teacher of Philadelphia in what language the ' Scarlet 
Letter ' was sung in that city. She replied, * Oh, Ger- 
man, of course.' ' Did you hear it ? ' I asked. ' Yes, 
and I enjoyed it very much, and it was sung in German,' 
she replied. ' It said in English on the programme,' I 
said. ' Well, if I was fooled, a great many more were 
fooled — beside myself, all our party thought so too. 
What are you going to do about it ? ' Gounod says: ' I 
did not like Italian singing; their tones were attacked so 



" Schools" of Singing 197 

differently from the French method of singing that it was 
unpleasant at first, but I went again and again, for I could 
not stay away. I enjoyed it so much.' " 

This is what Frau Johanna Gadski had to say in 
an interview printed in Werner s Magazine : 

" I have never had any lessons in acting. The director 
of the Choral Opera told me at the outset that it was bet- 
ter to act by feeling when singing than by instruction. 
If one studies only acting and singing, one is not always 
natural. That is the reason why one who does not speak 
German does not understand the German people and 
their spirit, is not a German, and cannot sing the Wag- 
ner roles. One must have the German spirit. Some- 
times you write here in your papers that German singers 
cannot sing. I think they sing German roles very well. 
One must sing, act, and, above everything, feel at the 
same time, and then one can speak to the heart of the 
listener." 

Singing in a foreign tongue is, and must be, and 
always will be (until these things are more thoroughly 
understood), to a large extent, simply mechanical. 
Until then, the soul-stirring depth {der Zanber) of 
the native composition will always be wanting. 
The Anglo-Saxon race has been altogether too de- 
pendent upon European continental nations for its 
examples, its support, and its development in all 
branches of art. This has been more particularly 
the case in regard to music and song. Though Ger- 
man music, for obvious reasons, which give Germans 
the preponderance on this field of art, ranks first 
among nations, still there should be among Eng- 



198 Duality of Voice 

lish-speaking nations a greater native development 
thereof in harmony with the national expression. 

Song, above all, must be national ; it must be in 
harmony with the genius of a nation to attain its 
highest development. It is too closely allied to a 
nation's speech to be separated therefrom without 
doing violence to both its music and its meaning. 
The music and the words must go together ; their 
union is as indispensable as it is indissoluble. While 
we have excellent vocal material in this country, it 
lacks the proper food for its nourishment. There 
is no want of poetic compositions. No nation has 
their superior, or has them in greater abundance. 
We have the words and the singers ; but there is a 
woful lack of a higher class of compositions for 
singing. The latter are not at all commensurate 
with the abundance and the superiority of the talent 
that is awaiting their appearance. 

With compositions on a par with its vocal talent, 
this nation might rank first among nations in the 
art of singing. It must stand on its own footing. It 
must sing its own songs and must be taught by its 
own teachers. This dictum may provoke indig- 
nation in " foreign ' vocal teachers. Though I 
regret the possible consequences to them, this can- 
not be helped. Science is synonymous with know- 
ledge, and knowledge with truth, and " the truth 
must be told if the heavens should fall." 

BREATHING 

All of the preceding, in a manner, may be said to 
be a preliminary argument for the great truth I claim 



Breathing 199 

to have discovered, namely, that in the sphere of 
the trunk of our body the material part of our nature 
is represented by the hemisphere of the abdomen, its 
immaterial part by that of the thorax ; that in the 
sphere of the head a similar division obtains, in con- 
formity with which it is also divided into hemispheres 
representing material and immaterial issues ; and that 
every faculty, and the exercise thereof, have their be- 
ing in a dual action, in close succession, emanating 
from these hemispheres. 

The first proposition to be proven was that we 
breathe through the oesophagus, conjointly with 
the trachea. If all I have said in the preceding has 
not already convinced the reader of the truth of this 
statement, I trust the following experiments will 
thoroughly convince him thereof. These experi- 
ments will also furnish additional proof of the fact 
that English and German modes of respiration are 
of an inverse order. 

Not the slightest fear need be entertained as to 
the result of these experiments. I have made the 
same, and others of a similar nature, over and over 
again, without being in the least discomfited there- 
by ; and I may add that to the fact of having been 
entirely divested of fear, I largely owe my success 
in all these undertakings. 

If you are an Anglo-Saxon, and make the muscles 
of your throat rigid, thereby stopping inspiration 
through the trachea into the thorax, you will soon 
experience a decided movement of the abdomen, in 
conformity with which it will first expand anteriorly, 
then posteriorly, and again anteriorly. There will 



2oo Duality of Voice 

now be a pause, after which the abdomen will be 
first expanded posteriorly, then anteriorly, and 
again posteriorly. This is as far as you can go ; you 
will be compelled to release your hold on your throat 
after these six movements; the thorax meanwhile 
remaining passive. 

Upon next making the muscles of the back of 
your neck rigid, equal to those of the oesophagus, 
the latter being thereby closed to respiration, you 
will soon experience a decided movement of the 
thorax, by which it will be first expanded pos- 
teriorly, then anteriorly, and again posteriorly. 
There will now be a pause, after which the thorax 
will be first expanded anteriorly, then posteriorly, 
and again anteriorly. 

These twelve movements constitute one act of 
respiration during which inspiration and expiration 
for thorax and abdomen equalize each other. The 
first three movements of the abdomen, consisting of 
an inspiration, an expiration, and an inspiration, 
constitute what is commonly called an inspiration; 
the second three movements of the abdomen, con- 
sisting of an expiration, an inspiration, and an 
expiration, constitute what is commonly called an 
expiration. Of the six movements of the thorax 
succeeding these, the first three, consisting of an 
inspiration, an expiration, and an inspiration, are 
equal to an inspiration ; the last three, consisting of 
an expiration, an inspiration, and an expiration, are 
equal to an expiration. We thus have four com- 
plete respirations, two of which, equal to an inspira- 
tion and an expiration, belong to the abdomen ; and 



Breathing 201 

two, likewise equal to an inspiration and an expira- 
tion, belong to the thorax. 

Inasmuch as each of these four respirations is 
composed of three separate movements, one com- 
plete respiration consists of twelve separate move- 
ments of the respiratory organs. This relates to our 
ordinary mode of breathing. For vocal utterance, 
more especially the utterance of a vocal sound, these 
four respirations are first made for the impression, 
and are then, in an inverse order, repeated for the 
expression. This gives us eight movements, or an 
octave of movements, for each vocal sound ; these 
eight movements, as a matter of fact, consisting of 
twenty-four separate movements of the respiratory 
organs. These movements, which in our experi- 
ment were of relatively long duration, during our 
ordinary mode of breathing follow upon one another 
very rapidly; thorax and abdomen, which during 
our experiment were restrained, ordinarily and when 
unrestrained, acting and reacting upon one another 
in quick succession. 

The preceding experiment gives us the following 
result : 



Movement i 
2 



ABDOMEN 

Anterior, inspiration. 

Posterior, expiration. \ Inspiration, 

Anterior, inspiration. 

Posterior, expiration. ) 

Anterior, inspiration. \ Expiration, 

Posterior, expiration. ) 



202 Duality of Voice 



Movement i 

2 

3 

4 

5 
6 



THORAX 

Posterior, inspiration, 

Anterior, expiration. ^ Inspiration. 

Posterior, inspiration. 

Anterior, expiration. ) 

Posterior, inspiration. \ Expiration. 

Anterior, expiration. ) 



All of the preceding has reference to the Anglo- 
Saxon mode of breathing. 

Germans, under the same circumstances, will make 
movements of an inverse order. 

The first movement of the abdomen will be pos- 
terior, the next anterior, the third posterior, which 
will be succeeded by anterior, posterior, and anterior 
ones; while the movements of the thorax will be 
anterior, posterior, and anterior, succeeded by pos- 
terior, anterior, and posterior ones. This shows 
that with Germans, expiration antecedes inspiratio7t y 
while with Anglo-Saxons, inspiration antecedes 
expiration. 

In our experiment, with Anglo-Saxons, inspira- 
tion took place in the abdomen by two movements 
anteriorly to one posteriorly, and in the thorax by 
two movements posteriorly to one anteriorly ; while 
expiration took place by two movements of the 
abdomen posteriorly to one anteriorly, and in the 
thorax by two movements anteriorly to one posteri- 
orly, as per this schedule: 

Anglo-Saxon Abdomen 

i. Inspiration, Ant., post., ant. 

2. Expiration, Post., ant., post. 



Breathing 203 

Anglo-Saxon Thorax 

3. Inspiration, Post., ant., post. 

4. Expiration, Ant, post., ant. 

In the case of a German, it would have been more 
proper, for our experiment, to have first closed the 
muscles to the oesophagus, and then those to the 
trachea, as Germans first breathe into the oesophagus 
and then into the thorax. Had this been done, the 
result would have been inverse to that of our experi- 
ment, as follows : The first movement of the thorax 
would have been one of inspiration, the same as the 
first movement of the abdomen; and the second 
movement of the thorax would have been one of 
expiration, the same as the second movement of the 
abdomen, thus: 

German Thorax 

1. Inspiration, Ant., post, ant. 

2. Expiration, Post, ant., post. 

Abdomen 

3. Inspiration, Post, ant, post. 

4. Expiration, Ant., post., ant 

This shows that the movements of the abdomen are 
the reverse of those of the thorax : 

With Anglo-Saxons, in such a manner that, while 
for the abdomen inspiration takes place anteriorly, 
it takes place for the thorax posteriorly ; and that, 
while for the abdomen expiration takes place poste- 
riorly, it takes place for the thorax anteriorly ; 

With Germans, in such a manner that, while for 
the thorax inspiration takes place anteriorly, it takes 
place for the abdomen posteriorly ; and that, while 



204 Duality of Voice 

for the thorax expiration takes place posteriorly, it 
takes place for the abdomen anteriorly. 

These various modes of breathing find an illustra- 
tion in the following: 

Anglo-Saxons, while carrying a burden (for which 
purpose it is necessary to hold the breath or to 
economize the same as much as possible), inspire into 
the abdomen anteriorly and the chest posteriorly, 
and in so doing expand the same accordingly ; while 
Germans, under the same circumstances, breathe into 
and expand the abdomen posteriorly and the chest 
anteriorly. The action of the former tending away 
from the diaphragm, that of the latter tending 
towards it, exercise an influence on the spinal col- 
umn which causes Anglo-Saxons while carrying a 
burden to assume an erect, Germans a stooping 
position. This has already been illustrated by call- 
ing attention to the difference between the position 
of the Greek and Gothic caryatides, the former rep- 
resenting the Anglo-Saxon, the latter the German 
mode of breathing. The order for German soldiers, 
" Brust heraus, Bauch herein " ! (" Breast out, belly 
in "), for Anglo-Saxons should be, " Breast in, belly 
out " ! The former gives German soldiers that stiff 
appearance, tending towards the diaphragm, of 
which Heine has said: 

" Als haetten sie verschluckt den Stock, 
Womit man sie einst gepruegelt." 

(" As if the stick they 'd swallowed 

With which they once were walloped.") 

The fact that inspiration always consists in an in- 



Breathing 205 

spiration, an expiration, and an inspiration, while ex- 
piration consists in an expiration, an inspiration, and 
an expiration, is one of the most interesting observa- 
tions I have made in connection with these studies. 

These facts may be generalized in saying : There 
is no action connected with life which consists of 
a single movement in any one single direction ; 
every action, of whatsoever nature, if it is outgoing, 
consisting .of an outgoing, ingoing, and outgoing 
movement ; if it is ingoing, of an ingoing, outgoing, 
and ingoing movement; every superior movement 
consisting of a superior, an inferior, and a superior; 
every inferior, of an inferior, a superior, and an in- 
ferior one ; every left movement, of one to the left, 
to the right, and to the left ; every right movement, 
of one to the right, to the left, and to the right ; the 
last movement only being visible and accompanying 
action. 

While our experiment is representative of the 
general principles underlying our mode of breath- 
ing, the act of breathing, proper, is subject to many 
variations. During their waking moments, or for 
conversation, with Anglo-Saxons respiration takes 
place by thorax and abdomen changing off, al- 
ternately, while with Germans they succeed one 
another in the same manner as they did in our 
experiment, commencing, however, with the thorax 
instead of with the abdomen, and with expiration 
instead of with inspiration, as follows: 

Anglo-Saxon 

1. Insp. Thorax — post., ant., post. 

2. " Abd. — ant., post., ant. 



206 Duality of Voice 

3. Exp. Abd. — post., ant., post. 

4. Thorax — ant., post., ant. 

German. 

1. Exp. Thorax— post., ant., post. 

2. Insp. — ant., post., ant. 

3. Exp. Abd. — ant., post., ant. 

4. Insp. " — post., ant., post. 

This shows an indirect movement for Anglo-Saxon, 
a direct movement for German respiration. Hence, 
English enunciation is necessarily slow, German 
relatively quick. It also shows that the reserve 
force with Anglo-Saxons is held before it is ex- 
pended; with Germans it is expended almost as fast 
as it is engendered. 

As there is an apparent discrepancy between the 
last schedule and the previous one showing Anglo- 
Saxon mode of inspiration, I want to remind the 
reader that our " experiment " was made mainly to 
set forth the fact that we breathe through the oeso- 
phagus conjointly with breathing through the 
trachea; but it was not intended to show our regu- 
lar mode of breathing. 

Though Germans and Anglo-Saxons breathe in 
opposite directions, still there is an affinity between 
them in so far as they breathe along the same plane. 
Peoples who speak any of the Latin tongues, on the 
other hand, breathe along a different plane, and so 
do Slavonic, Mongolian, and other races. Anglo- 
Saxons and Germans, therefore, though opposed to 
one another in one sense, are affiliated in another; 
and both may be, therefore, as they often are, said 



Breathing 207 

to belong to the Teutonic race, together with other 
peoples along the borders of the North and Baltic 
Seas. In a similar manner, no doubt, other races 
possess their similitudes and dissimilarities. 

It should scarcely require any further proof on 
my part after this and all I have previously said to 
show that, if any of the peoples now speaking Latin 
tongues were in place thereof to speak English or 
German, they would, in the course of time, cease 
to be Frenchmen, Spaniards, or Italians, as the case 
might be, and would become Anglo-Saxons or Ger- 
mans ; or that, if any of the Slavonic races or peoples 
would do the same, the same result would eventually 
ensue; and also that, if Anglo-Saxon or German 
peoples were to speak Latin or Slavonic tongues in 
place of their own, they would eventually cease to 
be Anglo-Saxons or Germans, and would become 
the people whose tongue they were speaking ; always 
provided, of course, that such tongues were to be 
spoken idiomatically correctly. Should any one still 
doubt that language is the mainspring formulating 
peoples and nations in all that essentially belongs 
to them and distinguishes them as such, I confi- 
dently believe that that which I shall still further 
have to say on this subject will eventually convince 
even the most obdurate of the correctness of these 
assertions. 

The preceding schedules both for English- and 
German -speaking peoples show their mode of 
breathing during their waking moments and for the 
purpose of conversation. During sleep and for the 
demands of the singing voice, however, thorax and 



208 Duality of Voice 

abdomen interchange with one another in so har- 
monious a manner that their inspirations and ex- 
pirations appear as one respective inspiration and 
expiration. 

The following schedules will show the relation of 
metre and rhythm to breathing. 

Inspiration being of longer duration than expira- 
tion, I have in the following signified the former by 
the sign for long (— ), the latter by that for short (^) ; 
while for the rise of the voice I have used the sign 
for acute ('), and for its fall that for grave ( v ); for 
comparison, see schedule on page 202. 

Anglo-Saxon Abdomen Thorax 

1. Inspiration, 1CL 3. Inspiration, !C1 

2. Expiration, C!C 4. Expiration, C!C 

An experiment may be made by an Anglo-Saxon 
adopting the German mode of breathing and then 
attempting to speak English, or by a German adopt- 
ing the Anglo-Saxon mode of breathing and then 
attempting to speak German, which neither will 
succeed in doing. 

In making the experiments just now under con- 
sideration, it will not be necessary, after closing the 
muscles of the trachea or the oesophagus for the first 
six movements, to continue doing so, as the next 
six movements will ensue involuntarily. There may 
be several repetitions of these twelve movements 
involuntarily or automatically following after that; 
any special mode of breathing once assumed being 
apt to continue indefinitely until another mode is 
inaugurated. 



Breathing 209 

The same experiments may also be made by mak- 
ing abdomen and thorax alternately rigid, or produc- 
ing a state of rigidity through mechanical pressure, 
in place of producing it with the muscles of the 
oesophagus and the trachea. As this may appear 
simpler and " less dangerous/' there should be 
nothing to hinder any one from making these ex- 
periments. The movements will not be as pro- 
nounced, however, in the latter instance as they are 
in producing a direct closure of the trachea and the 
oesophagus. 

There is a fourth mode of producing the same 
results, namely, through the simple act of continu- 
ously " thinking " of any particular part. We may 
thus bring about a closure of the muscles of the 
trachea or oesophagus, of thorax or abdomen, etc. ; 
thought, which precedes motion for vocal utterance, 
always, as cause to effect, being the final arbiter in 
all matters of respiration, unless the latter is of an 
involuntary and simply functional character. While 
the act of breathing for life pursues its even tenor, 
breathing for vocal utterance, though of the same 
order, is subject to innumerable changes in con- 
formity with the sound, syllable, or word intended 
to be produced. 

I am aware that there may be apparent incongrui- 
ties in some of the preceding, and I presume there 
always will be. We can see things only from our 
limited standpoint. I have undertaken to solve 
matters supposed to be superhuman, or " of God," 
and hence perfect in their way, in a human, and 
therefore imperfect, manner. Our limitations natu- 



210 Duality of Voice 

rally extending to our power of observation, the 
duality of our nature in matters of this kind does 
not permit us — I might say, forbids us — arriving at 
final conclusions. We can go as far as our under- 
standing permits us to go — beyond that, we may at 
most indulge in speculation. I have limited myself 
to my limits, to what I could prove, and have but 
rarely indulged in what I could not — in speculation. 

Note. — Since the above was written Dr. G. E. Brewer, who in 
conjunction with Dr. F. C. Ard, last month (March, 1899), * n New 
York, successfully performed the very rare operation of laryngectomy, 
has told me that his patient had already (after a month) commenced 
to speak again, though as yet only in a monotonous whispering voice. 
She is doing so in spite of the fact that every vestige of her larynx, 
which had been in a diseased state, and which the doctor showed me, 
had been removed. When I told the doctor this mysterious " new" 
voice was that of the oesophagus and had always existed with his 
patient, as it exists with every one else, and had always been heard 
in conjunction with that of the trachea, he was greatly astonished, 
though naturally incredulous, but said he would investigate. 

SONG, SINGERS, AND PHYSIOLOGY 

We are incomprehensible and mysterious beings. 
We do not know whence we come nor whither we go ; 
we do not know what agencies guide and sustain us — 
our end is a tragic one. While the soles of our feet 
closely adhere to the ground, our heads are in touch 
with the most distant stars. We exercise faculties 
to perfection whose origin and mode of operation are 
unalterably hidden from our knowledge. We pos- 
sess gifts and talents which raise us above the plane 
of our ordinary existence and inspire us with the 
belief that we are related to the divinity, are part of 
the divinity. It has ever been man's aim to pene- 



Song, Singers, and Physiology 211 

trate this darkness, to learn to comprehend himself. 
The vocation of the singer is one to which this know- 
ledge is indispensable. In the fulness of his organi- 
zation endowed by nature with a divine gift, the 
singer's aim and desire is to retain and perfect this 
gift. 

The birds sing their same individual song through- 
out their career. Man, however, sings the song of 
his soul; a song as endless and as varied as his 
thoughts. Song with him is not a gift alone, but 
its exercise is a study, an art. He must sing know- 
ingly ; he must ascertain the source of his song and 
the reason why certain causes produce certain re- 
sults. Hence the necessity for a science of the 
voice. 

The knowledge of the exercise of our faculties is 
dependent on the knowledge of life and on that of the 
spirit, without whose aid no transaction of life of any 
kind ever takes place. Despairing of his ability to 
penetrate into the realms of the spirit, aspiring man 
has ever resorted to that which was next at his com- 
mand — matter. Hence the effort throughout all of 
man's history to reach the soul by way of the body. 
But body and mind, in alliance, have ever succeeded 
in frustrating these efforts; in keeping the secret of 
their duality and mutuality intact from the gaze of 
man. Yet singers are determined to find out some- 
thing in relation to the voice at least. Finding 
that we cannot penetrate into the relation existing 
between mind and matter, the effort is renewed 
in the most persistent manner to explain the life 
and the spirit, whose essence and outcome is the 



212 Duality of Voice 

voice, by examining into the relation of matter to 
matter. 

Our professor, having discarded the assistance of 
life and the spirit, dabbles in matter pure and unde- 
filed. This process our young students are invited 
to attend. They carry their youth and their talent, 
their high hopes and aspirations, into the dissecting- 
room, where the spirit of the voice is supposed to 
reveal itself among the ghastliest spectacles. If a 
person of ordinary good sense, but not acquainted 
with these subjects, were to attend a lecture on the 
physiology of the voice and then attend a singing- 
lesson based upon the knowledge thus attained, he 
would be apt to remark: " Can this performance 
possibly be meant to be in good faith ? Is not 
this man taking advantage of the credulity of this 
woman, who is giving him her hard-earned money, 
but to find before long that she has been beggared, 
not only in purse, but in voice and spirit as well; 
that she has not been benefited in any sense, but 
sadly robbed and betrayed ? " 

The persistency with which the modern scientist 
attempts to hammer a voice out of the larynx and 
surrounding material tissues and other physical 
agencies is a cardinal sin against the holy " spirit." 
When he uses this supposed knowledge for coining 
it into money at the expense of trusting and aspir- 
ing singers, he commits a malpractice, for which 
some day he will have to go to the penitentiary of 
his own conscience ; that is, if he is in possession of 
any. " Vocal bands, mucous membranes, tissues, 
ligaments, muscles, hollow spaces, air-pressure/' — 



Song, Singers, and Physiology 213 

these are the factors productive of the voice divine ; 
matter, nought but matter ; not a spark of the divine 
afflatus, not a spark even of life. 

Journals devoted to the voice are full of these 
things. I will quote but a single instance. At the 
Music Teachers' National Convention, held in New 
York, in June, 1898, a sensation was created by Dr. 
Frank E. Miller (see Werner s Magazine for August, 
1898, page 490) saying: 

" In other words, I wish to say that the action of the 
cavities or hollow spaces is anterior and prior to the 
action of the vocal bands in production of tone and 
tone-quality in our organs of speech. With this novel 
fact I announce an original discovery. ' ' 

It is such stuff as this that these people feed upon 
and believe in as revelations of great moment. 
Yet Dr. Miller and his coadjutors might sit be- 
fore these cavities or hollow spaces till the end of 
time, looking, observing, probing, measuring, weigh- 
ing, and determining their relation to the vocal bands 
and vice versa, and not a vestige of the spirit of the 
voice would ever make its appearance. The last 
conundrum of this kind, and it has special reference 
to my discoveries, is as follows: " May not the dis- 
turbance of speech known as stammering or stut- 
tering be mainly a condition caused by the putting 
out of gear of one air-chamber in its relationship to 
other air-chambers, whereby the air-pressures during 
the speech-act are at war with one another, resulting 
in the well-known manifestations? " ( Werner s Maga- 
zine for September, 1898, page 59). Air-chambers 



214 Duality of Voice 

and air-pressures again. I protest against being 
made particeps criminis in any such proceeding. 

When we go back to the earliest recorded times 
and find traces of an attempt at expression by means 
of crude signs or figures impressed upon the clay, 
we can see more of the potentiality of a science (or 
a civilization) arising therefrom than we can from 
the teachings of the laryngoscopists, who claim that 
the voice can be evolved from the relations of vari- 
ous forms of matter to one another, without even a 
trace of the spirit accompanying them. 

Not many years since audiences of intelligent per- 
sons were invited to watch a dark tent in which two 
men were so closely tied together (as it was sup- 
posed) that they could not possibly move a limb. 
From this tent noises would arise as of the dragging 
of chains along the floor, bells ringing, etc., inter- 
posed now and then by a chair being flung through 
the air. All this was done by the " spirits." This 
was a proceeding not unlike the one now going on 
in the materialistic school in connection with the 
spirit of the voice. There is no more likelihood of 
the latter arising from the dark tent of the matter 
they are investigating than of a real spirit appearing 
in that other tent. The performance, besides, is 
not as amusing, no chairs being flung, etc. The 
audience is looking on gravely expectant, but all 
remains forever monotonously, solemnly, ominously, 
and cadaverously silent and resultless. 

The living grain of corn a blind hen after much 
scratching succeeds in digging out from beneath a 
barn-yard floor bears a closer resemblance to life, and 



Song, Singers, and Physiology 215 

hence to the voice, than the relations a professor of 
physiology scratches together out of the various 
parts which he supposes make up the instrument of 
the voice. These attempts are so contrary to reason 
and common sense that in any other science their 
originators would be laughed to scorn for their 
pains. 

The other great issue with physiologists in con- 
nection with the voice is that of breathing. Clavic- 
ular breathing, costal breathing, diaphragmatic 
breathing, etc. — these are some of the terms in 
common use, and the " modes " of breathing com- 
monly practised. Each of these modes is supposed 
to be practised separately and at the will of the 
performer. They are praised and recommended or 
condemned according to the special view of the 
practitioner. Systems are based on these special 
modes and schools arise therefrom. What one 
" school " practises is condemned by another. And 
how could it be otherwise, all being wrong ? 

Being homogeneous entities, whose wholesome 
existence is based upon a harmonious cooperation of 
all parts, we cannot practise breathing from a special 
part without every other part more or less participat- 
ing. The act of breathing being our most vital per- 
formance, every other part would suffer if it were 
confined to any special part. Our entire system, 
therefore, must participate therein ; the hemisphere 
of the abdomen no less than that of the thorax ; bpth 
hemispheres cooperating with each other and with 
other streams introduced into our system through 
the pores and every other opening in the body. For 



216 Duality of Voice 

a moment, and for an especial expression, one part 
may prevail over another; but the true artist will 
always breathe in such a manner that after such an 
effort all parts will again harmonize and balance one 
another. He will have such control over his breath- 
ing powers that he can at any time throw the balance 
of power into one direction ; but he will never let 
any one direction continue to prevail over any other. 

Every theory heretofore advanced in respect to 
our mode of breathing, being based upon false prem- 
ises, is wrong in the abstract, and impossible of 
practical execution. 

If I have expressed myself strongly, it is because 
I feel strongly the injury which has been wrought 
by this so-called " science " of the laryngoscopists. 
It has in thousands of instances hindered the natural 
development of the voice, and has in many other 
directions done incalculable harm ; while it has in 
no direction ever done any good. It has oppressed 
the intellect, depressed the spirit, and suppressed the 
soul of singers. Let me add but this: What would 
be the use of the most scientifically constructed 
stove, filled with the most appropriate fuel, if the 
flame were wanting to set fire to this fuel ? Sup- 
posing the laryngoscopists to comprehend the in- 
tricate construction of the stove (the body), the 
highly sensitive and complicated apparatus of the 
fuel (the instrument of the voice) — both of which, 
however, they are greatly in the dark about — the 
flame would still be wanting to set fire to this fuel 
and fill the stove with the holy glow of song. This 
flame (the life, the spirit) they do not even pretend 



Song, Singers, and Physiology 217 

to be able to furnish. They only give us the stove 
and the fuel, which remain forever dark, cold, life- 
less, inert. 

To set myself up in judgment regarding these 
important issues, or to place my judgment over 
that of so many eminent persons in the past as well 
as the present, may appear to be a presumptuous, 
rash, bold, and almost unwarranted undertaking. 
It is not my fault, however, that there should be 
such utter confusion existing in these matters; that 
no one should have ever succeeded in reducing this 
chaos to any kind of order; that I am the heir, so 
to say, to this condition of affairs; the trustee to 
this inheritance, who is to make use of it to the best 
advantage of all that are interested. 

Nor is it my fault that, not by dint of superior en- 
dowments, or any other qualities of a superior order, 
but simply through the discovery of the dual nature 
of the voice, I should have obtained an insight 
into, a mastery over, these matters never before en- 
joyed by any man. Yet there seems to be a dis- 
position on the part of some persons to throw blame 
on me for these facts; in place of furthering, to 
suppress, this knowledge ; in place of probing and 
investigating, to assume that it is simply the out- 
come of a somewhat more than lively imagination. 
It appears to me that this is partly done in the inter- 
est of the vast literature on these subjects now in 
existence, which will become obsolete and valueless 
as soon as the truth in matters of the voice has been 
established. 

I dare say this simple fact, " We breathe and 



218 Duality of Voice 

speak through the oesophagus in conjunction with 
breathing and speaking through the trachea," for 
real knowledge, is worth all of the entire literature 
on the voice, as a science, now in existence. 

The science of the voice, as I understand and am 
trying to explain and establish it, is one not so 
much of mechanical issues, though they have their 
share in it, as one in which the spirit, this heretofore 
unapproachable issue, performs the greatest and 
most vital part. It is a question of life, and every 
issue and every agency governing life are involved 
in it. How vast a science this science of the voice 
therefore is, can be better imagined than at once 
fully comprehended. I am far from being able to 
present it in all its aspects, but shall endeavor, as I 
have already partly done, to continue to give a 
general outline of it. 

It will take time and patience for any one to acquire 
this knowledge, but the reward will be more than 
commensurate. To superficially obtain it from others 
is not sufficient; one must learn to know it of one's 
own knowledge. It is an academic study, embracing 
many sciences. A person must enter into it with 
his whole being if he wants to get hold of the spirit 
thereof and be truly benefited thereby. He must 
identify himself with this knowledge, must become 
part and parcel thereof, or it must become part and 
parcel of him. When this is done, true teachers of 
the voice will arise, for here is a chance for great- 
ness to assert itself. It will be death to all hack- 
neyed knowledge and charlatanism. 

When the true knowledge of the production of 



Song, Singers, and Physiology 219 

speech and song for every language has been estab- 
lished, when we have a real science of the voice, the 
teacher comprehending these issues in their entire 
latitude will be able to teach how to interpret 
Mozart, Schubert, and Wagner, Rossini and Verdi, 
Gounod, and every other master in the tongue and 
the spirit in which he has produced his works. 

The genius for execution in the art of singing is 
with the Anglo-Saxon race, but not for composition, 
for original conception. It may come, but it is not 
with it now. 

The desire of the singer naturally is to embrace 
the highest in her or his repertoire. At present it is 
Wagner. But how can Wagner be rendered without 
a comprehension of his genius as expressed through 
his language ? The genius of the master and the 
genius of the language he wrote and composed in 
cannot be separated. They are soul and body of 
one and the same entity. Without the comprehen- 
sion of the genius of the German language, of its 
idiomatic expression, it is not possible to reproduce 
what Wagner meant to express by his work. To 
sing German with an English tongue is an anomaly; 
it is still English in the real sense of the word, and 
not German. It is an unnatural proceeding, and 
therefore injurious to the vocal organs of the singer. 

No one would expect a foreigner, for the delecta- 
tion of a native-born audience, to recite before it 
poetry in the latter's language, or a native-born 
person to recite before it in a foreign tongue. In 
either case such a person would fail. Why, then, 
song, this sister art and accomplishment ? 



120 Duality of Voice 

All these are questions which, though ever so 
reluctantly, artists will have to face. It complicates 
their art, but it will also, when understood, make it 
comparatively easy. Americans will then sing the 
works of foreign masters with the same perfect ease 
that they do those of their native composers, and so 
will persons of every other nationality. 

Who will be able to teach a foreign language so 
well as the natives of each respective country? pro- 
vided such persons have learned to comprehend the 
difference between the mode of production of their 
speech and that of their scholars. In that case only 
will a German be able to teach an Anglo-Saxon his 
(the German) language for either speech or song. 
It will be the same with every other nationality. 

The teachers, as a class, are with me. They feel 
that the efforts of the physiologists to aid them in 
their vocation are wrong and misleading. They 
have no faith in the revelation of matter. They 
know matter is inert, powerless for any purpose 
without the indwelling of the spirit ; that the spirit 
reigns over and controls every manifestation of life; 
and that the voice in singing is one of the highest 
manifestations thereof. They know that song comes 
from the heart and the soul, while it uses the body 
for its instrument. 

I have been told I must build up before tearing 
down; before destroying the old I must put some- 
thing better in its place. I think it a praiseworthy 
undertaking, in itself, to destroy the false and the 
harmful. Besides, we cannot erect a new building 
before the old one has been removed. 



Song, Singers, and Physiology 221 

As for this new science, I am doing what I can to 
put it into shape, to give a visible and tangible form 
to it as it has developed in my mind. The world 
has been able to do without it so long, those inter- 
ested in these matters must have a little patience. 

I specially appeal to the young to devote them- 
selves to these studies and to thus become the pre- 
cursors in the application of principles which are 
destined to revolutionize the vocal science of the 
world; the old being often too old to get out of 
lifelong practices, no matter how erroneous. I ap- 
peal in like manner to the students of medicine, and 
to those of every other branch of science, whose aim 
is the knowledge of man in any of, and all, his 
relations. 



INDEX 



Abdomen, 174, 198, 208 
Abstract thought, 72 
Accent, 178, 180 
./Ether, 91 
Anapest, 167, 175 
Anglo-Saxon race, 136 
Animal magnetism, 14 
Anode, 106 
Antibachius, 175 
Atlas, 127 
Autology, 56 

Bachius, 175 

Basic Law of Vocal Utterance, 

1, 6, 7 
Bladder, 46 
Blood, 65 
Brain, 46 
Breathing, 8, 93, 95, 159, 198, 

214 
Brinkerhoff, Mme. Clara, 6, 195 
Bronchi, 8 

Caryatides, 104 
Cathode, 106 

Centrifugal, 124, 130, 152 
Centripetal, 124, 130, 152 
Charlatanism, 12 
Circulation of sound, 109 
Climate, 135 
Clothing, 78 
Colonization, 140 
Congenital deaf, 84 
Consonants, 89 



Dactylus, 164, 175 
Dentistry, 132 
Diaphragm, 80, 102, 203 
Dissecting room, 211 
Douglass, Frederick, 137 
Drumhead, 74 
Duality, 18 

Emphasis, 161, 179 
English-speaking peoples, 136 
Evolution, 18 
Expansion, 90 
Expiration, 80, 200 
Extirpation, 59 

Foreigners, 134, 173, 194 
Fraenum linguae, 42 

Gadski, Johanna, 196 
Generation, 107 
German writers, 65 
Gounod, 195 
Gravitation, 107 

Heidenhain, Mr., 14 
Heine, 164, 204 
Hemispheres, 88 
Holmes, Dr. O. W., 12, 123 
Huxley, 21 
Hypnotism, 52 

Iambic measure, 167 
Idiomatic expression, no, 113 
123, 143, 148 



223 



224 



Index 



Idiom of the sea, 144 ; of the 

forest, 146 
Immigration, 134 
Inspiration, 177, 200 
Intonation, 161 
Introspection, 4, 56, 68 

Kidneys, 46 

Laryngoscope, 50 
Laryngoscopists, 215 
Larynx, 9 
Lungs, 46 
Limn, Mr., 167 

Matter, 211, 218 
Medicine, 220 
Metre, 161, 172, 178 
Miller, Dr., 212 
Mind, 184 

Motion, 89, 142, 151 
Muller, Prof. Max, 99 

Octave, 93 
CEsophagus, 198, 208 

Palimpsest, 96 
Phonograph, 71, 88, 90 
Point of gravitation, 101 
Posterior surfaces, 68 

" R" sound, 104 
Race distinctions, 137 
Reinforcement, 47 
Religion, 17 
Replica, 19, 42, 129 
Rhythm, 68, 93, 160, 172, 178 
Rigidity, 57, 59, 176, 208 
Roentgen, Professor, 105 
Rush, Dr., 48 

Saxon words, 168 
School of singing, 187 



Science of the voice, 210 

Sight, 183 

Simple sounds, 66, 68, 88, 106 

Singers, 210 

Singing, 57, 158 

Soft palate, 129 

Soul, 184 

Speech and song, 158 

Spirit, 54, 211, 220 

Spirits, 44 

Spiritual cell, 148 

Stammering, 97 

Stuttering, 97 

Surd, 89 

Teachers, 13, 218, 219 
Teeth, 132 
Teutonic race, 206 
Thorax, 174, 198, 208 
Thought, 192 
Timbre, 195 
Tongue, 61, 101 
Trachea, 198, 208 
Trochaic measure, 165 
Tuning, 157 

Ureters, 47 

Ventriloquism, 73 

Virchow, Professor, 21 

Viscera, 46 

Vivisection, 51 

Vocal science, 220 

Vocal sounds, 67, 89 

Voice of the oesophagus, 1 ; fall- 
ing, 175 ; rising, 175 ; whisper- 
ing, 191 

Von Buelow, 193 

Werners Magazine, 6, 7, 196, 

212, 213 
Will, 179, 184 



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4 



